Why South Korea’s Biggest Streaming Service Sold for $1.6 Billion

On the surface, streaming music is a hopeless money pit, with high licensing costs, bad margins, and far too many competitors plaguing profitability.  Just shake a stick, and there’s a troubled tale: Spotify has incinerated hundreds of millions without a clear exit; Pandora has yet to turn a profit; Deezer canceled its IPO; Rdio went out of business.But over in South Korea, there’s a success story.  Just this week, messaging giant Kakao agreed to purchase a majority positi