[THE INVESTOR]  Mobile messenger firm Line announced on Sept. 29 that it would invest 4.6 billion yen (US$45.32 million) in selfie app Snow, wholly owned by Korean internet giant Naver .With the latest round of investment, Line, a subsidiary of the internet firm, will acquire 25 percent of the voting shares for Snow.The Snapchat-like mobile app, which enables users to take filtered selfies or face swap in a picture, has recently garnered immense popularity among mobile users, especially in Asia.

[THE INVESTOR] With Samsung Electronics poised to resume the sale of its latest Galaxy Note 7 smartphone on Oct. 1, its shares and those of its parts suppliers rose on Sept. 29.Samsung Electro-Mechanics saw its shares increase 2.07 percent to close at 49,350 won (US$44.9). Since the first report of the faulty battery of the Note 7 made headlines on Aug. 24, the firm’s stock price dropped to a low of 47,400 won, down 20.1 percent from a high of 60,000 won. Amotech, a near field communication chip

[THE INVESTOR] IT solutions firm Samsung SDS saw its share price increase 9 percent on Sept. 29, closing at 157,500 won (US$143.8).The upward move reflects positive market views on the planned split-off of its logistic solution business, according to market watchers.“The split-off of the logistics solution business unit is a fait accompli and it will likely improve profitability of the firm,” said Oh Se-joon, an analyst from Heungkook Securities. Samsung SDS’ headquarters in Seoul. Samsung SDS“W

[THE INVESTOR] Samsung Electronics  has raised the sales target for its new Gear S3 smartwatch to about 5 million units, as against 3.1 million unit sales for its predecessor, local daily Etnews reported on Sept. 29. The Korean tech giant has recently notified its parts suppliers the target figure for the two smartwatch models -- the Gear S3 Frontier and Classic -- that will be on sale possibly from late next month. Samsung unveiled its latest smartwatch at the IFA electronics trade show held in

[THE INVESTOR] Samsung Electronics and German software giant SAP on Sept. 29 opened a joint research and development center which will focus on the next-generation in-memory database platform.The in-memory database is a database management system that enables faster data access by storing data in main memories instead of hard disks.Jun Young-hyun, chief of Samsung’s memory business, and Adaire Fox-Martin, head of SAP Asia-Pacific, participated in the opening ceremony of the center in Hwaseong, G

[THE INVESTOR] Chinese tech behemoth Huawei is reportedly planning to develop smartwatches running on Tizen, an open-source operating system developed by a group of tech firms including Samsung Electronics and Intel.Local daily JoongAng Ilbo reported that Huawei has recently joined hands with Samsung, a leading Tizen alliance member, to deploy the operating system in its next smartwatches.The anticipated collaboration is the first of its kind since the launch of Tizen in 2012. The local daily qu

[THE INVESTOR] Ebest Investment & Securities anticipated that online game developer Neowiz Games’ earnings in the July-September period would miss previous market estimates, due to decreased profits in its global business. The investment firm said in its latest report that the firm’s third-quarter operating profit would come in at 4.9 billion won (US$4.47 million), down 9.8 percent from last year with its revenue standing at 46.8 billion won, down 53.1 percent from a year ago.Its quarterly sales

[THE INVESTOR] LG Electronics, a long-time underdog in the premium smartphone war, has got a chance to step up its game against its compatriot rival Samsung Electronics and US-based Apple. Samsung has been reeling from a series of fire and explosion cases of its Galaxy Note 7 smartphone that have made headlines around the world. Despite its all-out efforts to minimize the impact of the battery crisis, such as the largest-scale smartphone recall in history, some consumers are still afraid o

[THE INVESTOR] Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest memory chipmaker, will reportedly start to install manufacturing tools for the 3-D NAND flash memory next month at its manufacturing complex being constructed in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province.The installation of the chip equipment is in line with Samsung’s efforts to speed up the launch of the manufacturing complex amid the neck-and-neck competition among global chip companies to secure an upper hand.Samsung aims to launch the manufacturing

[THE INVESTOR] Chipmaker SK hynix is all out to create growth momentum by completing the development of an advanced 3-D NAND flash memory chip this year.The Korean semiconductor firm is in the final phase to produce the 3-D NAND chip with 48 cell layers, according to industry sources No other chip companies, except for its local rival Samsung Electronics, have mass-produced the advanced memory chip stacking 48 cell layersThe semiconductor business arm of SK Group said in a conference call in Jul

[THE INVESTOR] Kiwoom Securities forecast in a recent investment report that LG Chem would post lower-than-expected earnings in the July-September period due to a price drop of small-sized battery and increasing costs. “LG Chem’s operating profit will likely come in at 466.1 billion won (US$420.40 million), lower than previous market estimates in the third quarter,” said Lee Dong-wook, an analyst from the investment company, adding that the decreased price of small-sized batteries and increase i

[THE INVESTOR] Samsung Electronics is struggling to speed up its ongoing Galaxy Note 7 replacement program in Korea with almost 50 percent of the customers still reluctant to exchange their phones due to safety concerns. The Korean tech giant said it has delayed the resumption of the phone’s sales by three more days to Oct. 1 in a bid to “minimize the inconvenience of the current Note 7 users who are advised to have new phones and to swiftly complete the exchange program.”On Sept. 26, Samsung sa

[THE INVESTOR] Samsung Electronics and Mobile TeleSystems, the leading telco in Russia, announced on Sept. 26 that they have signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly develop new telecom technologies. The MOU specifically covers technologies viewed as essential for advanced communications, including advanced carrier aggregation, multiple-input multiple output (MIMO) technologies, LTE broadcast (eMBMS), multi-path TCP (MPTCP) as well as IoT technologies such as NB-IoT and LTE-Machine, accor

[THE INVESTOR] Despite the high profile debut as CEO of the nation’s largest mobile messenger a year ago, Kakao chief Lim Ji-hoon has been far short of bringing a breath of fresh air to Kakao. The firm’s operating profit in the April-July period, at 26.6 billion won ($24 million), was up 132.8 percent from the same period last year, but the improvement was largely due to the takeover of music streaming service firm Loen Entertainment earlier this year, which earned 17.8 billion won of operating

[THE INVESTOR] Samsung Electronics, which is reeling from battery explosions of its latest flagship smartphone Galaxy Note 7, is expected to sell the refurbished products of its handset from next year, according to sources.“Samsung has not made a final decision yet, but it will likely sell the refurbished Note 7 units next year,” an industry source said. The source anticipated the refurbished handsets will be mostly sold in emerging markets such as India and Vietnam where low-end and mid-range s

[THE INVESTOR] US tech giant Apple is set to be grilled at a parliamentary audit next week over its below-par after-sales service policies in South Korea.The Future Planning, Science, Broadcasting and Communications Committee, an IT policy watchdog under the National Assembly, said that Richard Yoon, the head of Apple Korea, will attend the audit scheduled for Sept. 26.It will be the second time that Yoon will participate in the parliamentary audit session. He was questioned at a 2015 audit over

[THE INVESTOR] Investment firm Dongbu Securities forecast that Samsung SDI’s continued operating loss would deepen in the July-Sept period due to rising costs for the recent Galaxy Note 7 recall and lackluster growth of its mid- and large-size battery business.The investment firm anticipated that operating loss in the third quarter would increase to 64.5 billion won (US$58.50 million) down from the previous 26-billion-won estimate. Despite high expectations on electric vehicles, the business env

[THE INVESTOR] Samsung Electronics has been running a replacement program for its combustible and explosive Galaxy Note 7 with a new product, but the new handset still has battery issues, according to a news report on Sept. 23. News channel YTN reported that a Galaxy Note 7 buyer, surnamed Choi, had received a new Note 7 through the tech firm’s recall program, which began on Sept. 19 in Korea. His new phone, however, quickly discharged -- the battery level dropped almost 1 percent every second -

[THE INVESTOR] Samsung Electronics is extending the refund period for its Galaxy Note 7 smartphone with a faulty battery to the end of this month in Korea. The company said on Sept. 22 that the Korean Agency for Technology Standard, a state-run agency overseeing product safety, has approved its revised recall plan of the Note phone. Samsung had previously planned to offer a refund for the defective device from Sept. 2-19, while running a replacement program with a refurbished Note or Samsung’s o

[THE INVESTOR] The number of Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy Note 7 users who have exchanged their Note 7 handset for a new Note 7 has reportedly crossed 100,000 in Korea since the beginning of the firm’s recall program on Sept. 19.Around 20,000 to 30,000 have visited mobile stores run by mobile carriers or the tech giant to get a new Note 7, according to the news reports. The number of people who canceled their mobile subscription for the Note 7 stands at 18,000, accounting for 4.5 percent of the e