Apple under antitrust scrutiny

[THE INVESTOR] The Korea Fair Trade Commission is looking into Apple on suspicion of imposing part of advertising costs on local mobile carriers.According to industry sources, the FTC suspects that local carriers were made to cover part of the advertising costs for the US company’s new products. Apple is also said to be suspected of making carriers cover a part of the costs arising from customer services. The FTC, however, declined to confirm the reports.By Choi He-suk (cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)

June 20, 2016

Samsung’s Joyent buy not enough to take on AWS: analyst

[THE INVESTOR] Samsung Electronics is expected to get a big boost with its recent acquisition of US-based cloud service start-up Joyent but it would be still not enough to compete head-on with the market No. 1 Amazon Web Service, or AWS.Samsung did not reveal the acquisition price for the deal that was announced on June 16. Global Innovation Center, its Silicon Valley start-up accelerator, is said to have led the whole process. After the acquisition, Joyent will be run as a separate entity under

June 20, 2016

Rise in patients suffering herniated discs in neck

Increased use of smartphones is suspected as one of the reasons behind the rise in the number of herniated cervical disc patients in Korea, according to the National Health Insurance Service on Sunday.Newly released NHIS data showed the number of cervical disc patients rose from 699,858 in 2010 to 868,729 in 2015. The total amount of hospital fees for treatment of the condition also jumped 35 percent over the same period, from 166 billion won ($142 million) to 226 billion won. (123RF)Professor J

June 19, 2016

LG Display to collaborate with Chinese patent office

[THE INVESTOR] Display maker LG Display said June 17 that it held a meeting with top officials from the Patent Examination Cooperation Center, a patent office, in Jiangsu, China. At the meeting the company’s chief technology officer Kang In-byeong elaborated on the firm’s business strategies and technologies including organic light-emitting diodes. LG Display’s chief technology officer Kang In-byeong (right).CTO Kang and officials from the patent office vowed to make concerted efforts to bring i

June 17, 2016

[ANALYST REPORT] The global robot revolution is here, and growing

The past month has seen a spate of robotics M&A activity around the world. China tipped its hand to its RIoT ambitions with a USD5bn offer for Germany’s Kuka, one of the world’s leading robotics companies. Kuka has traditionally been a strong player in the industrial robot space but recently has been aggressively moving into the service robotics domain due to the expected massive growth of the segment.Toyota is also reported to be in talks with Google to acquire Boston Dynamics and Schaft—the wo

June 17, 2016

LG Innotek projected to post two straight quarters of operating loss

[THE INVESTOR] Camera module maker LG Innotek’s second-quarter operating profit will likely miss the market consensus due to the lackluster sales performance of its partners that include U.S.-based Apple and LG Electronics, according to an investment report.The Seoul-based LG Group affiliate is expected to post an operating loss of 20.4 billion won (US$17.4 million), far below the average of 10.8 billion won in operating profit forecast by a group of investment firms, according to Hana Financial

June 17, 2016

Foreign investors’ stake in Samsung Electronics exceeds 50%

[THE INVESTOR] The stake of foreign investors in Samsung Electronics hit the highest level on June 16 in around seven months.The shares owned by foreign investors accounted for 50.7 percent -- the highest since Nov. 2, 2015, according to Korean Exchange, the sole securities exchange operator.Despite increasing fears of the UK’s exit from the European Union, they bought 560 billion won (US$447 million) worth of Samsung shares from June 1 to 16. The share price jumped to 1.4 million won in recent

June 17, 2016

Samsung’s Joyent buy not enough to take on AWS: analyst

[THE INVESTOR] Samsung Electronics is expected to get a big boost with its recent acquisition of US-based cloud service start-up Joyent but it would be still not enough to compete head-on with the market No. 1 Amazon Web Service, or AWS.Samsung did not reveal the acquisition price for the deal that was announced on June 16. Global Innovation Center, its Silicon Valley start-up accelerator, is said to have led the whole process. After the acquisition, Joyent will be run as a separate entity under

June 17, 2016

SK hynix to launch LPDDR4X mobile chip later this year

[THE INVESTOR] SK hynix plans to launch more energy efficient, next-generation dynamic random-access memory or DRAM chip solutions into the market in the second half of this year. The chipmaker unveiled the plan at a meeting with suppliers held in Shenzhen, China, on June 16. The new solution, called low power double data rate 4 X or LPDDR4X, boasts 20 percent higher energy efficiency compared to the current LPDDR4.Samsung Electronics, the global No. 1 memory chip maker, had already announced th

June 17, 2016

LG Display starts boosting OLED production with W1tr investment

[THE INVESTOR] LG Display has started executing its 1 trillion won ($850 million) investment into Korean plants to beef up production of organic light-emitting diode panels for TVs and smartphones. The display-making unit of LG Group is also ordering new equipment from local suppliers, the Electronic Times reported on June 17. According to the report, the company is replacing the production line for liquid-crystal displays at its P8 plant in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, with those for larger OLED pa

June 17, 2016

Samsung shows growing appetite for start-up M&As

[THE INVESTOR] Samsung Electronics has been actively seeking the merger and acquisition of start-ups over the past few years.The list of its takeovers showed that the world’s largest electronics manufacturer has been focused on making a move into the software and cloud sectors and beefing up its presence in the business-to-business segment.Since 2014, the Korean tech giant has acquired nine companies, including video app services developer firm SELBY in May 2014, SmartThings in August 2014, prin

June 17, 2016

Kakao to split its business into two arms

[THE INVESTOR] Mobile messenger operator Kakao is reportedly planning to split its services business into two divisions -- social network and portal.The social network division will be in charge of running its flagship social networking services including KakaoTalk and KakaoStory while the portal business will be operating news platform Daum News and content platform KakaoTalk Channel among others.KakaoTalk ChannelLim Sung-young, director of the firm’s media content team, will head the portal bu

June 17, 2016

Samsung named most respected brand in Asia

[THE INVESTOR] Samsung Electronics has been named the most respected brand in Asia for five consecutive years, a recent survey found June 17. Campaign Asia-Pacific and Nielsen recently conducted the Asia Top 1000 Brand survey on consumers in 13 Asian countries. The Korean tech giant has topped the survey since 2012. Its archrival Apple was ranked second, followed by Sony, Nestle, Panasonic, Nike, LG, Canon, Chanel and Adidas. (theinvestor@heraldcorp.com)

June 17, 2016

Prosecutors take vandalism case involving LGE CEO to highest court

[THE INVESTOR] The Korean prosecution has decided to appeal to the Supreme Court in a so-called washing machine row involving Jo Sung-jin, the chief executive of LG Electronics' home appliances and air solutions, after the lower courts ruled in favor of the LG CEO earlier this month.The prosecutors’ office appealed to the highest court on June 15 after the two lower courts acquitted CEO Jo and two of his aides on charges of damaging Samsung Electronics' washing machines at retail shops during th

June 17, 2016

KT embroiled in lawsuit with shareholders

[THE INVESTOR] A group of KT’s shareholders on June 16 filed a lawsuit against the telecommunications company for allegedly infringing on their right to speak at the shareholders meeting in March.The minority shareholders claimed in their complaint that the firm intentionally blocked them from entering the venue of the meeting for three hours in order to fill the front row seats with employee shareholders who sided with the firm. “KT deliberately gave only those employee stockholders in the fron

June 17, 2016

UHD to become new norm in TV market

[THE INVESTOR] The chief of a global industry group that sets ultrahigh-definition technology standards said UHD technology would soon replace high-definition technology as the new norm in the industry. Speaking with Korean reporters in Seoul on Wednesday, UHD Alliance president Hanno Basse said members of the alliance would continue to make concerted efforts to improve the viewing experience of TVs. Samsung Electronics’ SUHD TVs.“It will not take long for UHD TVs to replace HD TVs, probably 5 y

June 17, 2016

Samsung shows growing appetite for start-up M&As

[THE INVESTOR] Samsung Electronics has been actively seeking merger and acquisition deals of start-ups in the past couple of years.The list of its takeovers showed that the world’s largest electronics manufacturer has been focused on making a move into the software and cloud sectors and beefing up its presence in the business-to-business segment. Since 2014, the Korean tech giant acquired nine companies, including video app services developer firm SELBY in May 2014, SmartThings in Aug. 2014, pri

June 17, 2016

LG Display starts W1tr investment to beef up OLED production

[THE INVESTOR] LG Display has started executing its 1 trillion won (US$850 million) investment into the Korean plants to beef up production of organic light-emitting diode panels both for TVs and smartphones. The display-making unit of LG Group is also ordering new equipment from local suppliers, the Electronic Times reported on June 17. According to the report, the company is replacing production line for liquid-crystal displays at its P8 plant in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, with those for larger

June 17, 2016

LG Electronics denies downsizing report

[THE INVESTOR] LG Electronics dismissed Thursday a news report the Korean tech giant is preparing to reduce about 1,000 employees at its struggling mobile business division. “We are relocating some employees to other business divisions as disclosed in May, but we are not considering cutting any jobs,” an LG Electronics spokesperson told The Investor, a new online business news site recently launched by The Korea Herald. “Some hundreds of workers have been relocated on a regular basis,” he added,

June 16, 2016

LG Electronics denies downsizing mobile division

[THE INVESTOR] LG Electronics on June 16 dismissed a news report that the Korean tech giant is preparing to reduce about 1,000 employees at its struggling mobile business division. “We are relocating some employees to other business divisions as disclosed in May, but we are not considering any job cuts,” an LG Electronics spokesperson told The Investor, a brand new online business news site recently launched by The Korea Herald. “Some hundreds of workers have been relocated on a regular basis,”

June 16, 2016