livedoor Co., Ltd. (株式会社ライブドア, Kabushiki-gaisha Raibudoa) was a Japanese company that functioned as an Internet service provider and operator of a web portal and blog platform before being brought down by a scandal in 2006.

Its reliance on acquisitions and stock swap mergers to achieve growth also made it one of the country's most controversial enterprises.

A scandal involving securities law violations led the Tokyo Stock Exchange to delist Livedoor on April 14, 2006.

The raids spooked investors and sent shares plunging on January 17 and 18 as a widening criminal investigation sparked panic selling on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

Volume was so heavy that it threatened to overload the TSE's computer system, prompting a halt in trading for the entire market—a breaking record and the first time this has ever occurred.

Securities, a firm raided by prosecutors earlier in the week in connection with Livedoor, was found dead in a Naha, Okinawa hotel room in what the authorities labeled a suicide.

After several hours of questioning Horie, investigators felt they had learned enough to press charges and petitioned for four arrest warrants, which were granted.

Horie, Livedoor's chief financial officer, and the presidents of two subsidiaries were arrested mid-evening for securities and accounting fraud.

[11] They were held for two months without bail, and during this time, Livedoor's temporary Representative Director Fumito Kumagai was also arrested.

[19] Horie published an autobiography during his appeals, Complete Resistance, in which he proclaims his innocence and states that he was being targeted only due to his infamy, not the actual nature or severity of any crimes.

"[21] In order to prevent a recurrence of the scandal, Japan passed a law similar to Sarbanes–Oxley, nicknamed J-SOX, on June 14, 2006.