Samsung and LG, the nation’s top two smartphone-makers, are feeling the pinch of enhanced competition on their home turf, a market that used to be called a “tomb” for foreign handset-makers. Despite being squeezed between Apple’s iPhone and cheaper phones from Chinese runners-up in the global market, the two Korean tech giants have long enjoyed dominant market positions at home. But more recently foreign brands are fast gobbling up their market shares, forcing Samsung and LG to turn to less prof

LG Electronics said Wednesday it would unveil its new high-end home appliance brand “LG Signature” during the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next month. After its official debut at the world’s largest electronics trade show, the brand will roll out in the U.S., Europe and Korea in the first half of next year, the company said.  The new brand represents the sleek design and upgraded product quality of its high-end home appliances. This is the first time for LG to have a subbrand

LG Uplus CEO and vice chairman Kwon Young-soo made his first visit to retail shops in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province to inspect sales activities and encourage employees this week. Kwon took office on Nov. 27 to lead the nation’s No. 3 telecom company. Over the past month, the company said he has met executives, managers and working-level employees to better communicate with them.  “Creative services can make a big difference. We can find solutions through field management,” he said during a store v

Samsung Electronics on Wednesday started its annual global strategy meeting, with some 600 executives and heads of regional operations around the world in attendance. Samsung Electronics vice chairman Lee Jae-yong is also scheduled to join the meeting --the first this year. The one planned in the first half of this year was canceled due to the outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome.  The mobile and home appliance divisions are holding a three-day meeting through Friday at the Suwon campus

LG CNS president and CEO Kim Young-sub stressed pragmatic approach at work for better communication and efficiency in his inauguration message to employees Thursday. Kim, former senior vice president at LG Uplus, took office as new CEO of LG CNS, the IT solutions unit, last month. Prior to working at LG Uplus, he had served diverse positions at LG CNS, including chief financial officer, for 11 years. “It is great to come back,” he said. “I also feel heavy responsibility about my new task.” He as

Samsung Electronics on Wednesday announced it will set up a new team specializing in automotive parts to speed up its expansion into the lucrative market in an era of electric mobility. The plans were announced as part of the Korean tech giant’s annual business reshuffle that aims, among other things, to secure new growth engine businesses while restoring profitability in existing device sales. Park Jong-hwan, senior vice president and head of chip card and microcontrollers team, will lead the n

Samsung Group on Tuesday honored 12 Korean and foreign executives who showed the highest achievements among its 400,000 employees over the past year.  The award ceremony for the annual “Samsung Award of Honor” was held at the headquarters in Seoul, with some 350 people in attendance, including the recipients, their families and other Samsung executives and employees. Samsung Electronics vice chairman and the group’s heir apparent Lee Jae-yong also joined the event to celebrate.  Seven executives

In 2014, Koreans were just checking the day’s weather on Google. This year, they were keen for information on the Middle East respiratory syndrome. Google Korea on Tuesday announced a list of the year’s top searches, an honest, sometimes embarrassing, peek into what Koreans cared about over the past year. Searches for “MERS” soared from May 20 when the first patient was confirmed in Korea, then peaked in June. Searches for other diseases such as SARS and H1N1 also surged along with those for N95

Samsung Group on Friday announced a total of 294 executive promotions -- the lowest in six years, reflecting a sense of crisis across its key affiliates.The tally was 20 percent down from last year’s 353 and the lowest since 2009 when Samsung reduced executive promotions to 247 following the global financial crisis. The flagship Samsung Electronics, which has struggled to restore profits, suffered a 40 percent drop from 2013 when the company’s record earnings were reflected in the reshuffle. A S

There is widespread speculation that Samsung Electronics may exit from the camera market, given the tech giant’s efforts to restore profits across key affiliates.Samsung has been scaling down its money-losing camera business. Last year, the company combined its camera business into its mobile business division. With no new camera launches since February, the company announced recently it would stop its camera sales in Europe and some Asian markets. What is more, news reports on Thursday suggeste

Samsung Electronics on Tuesday announced it has named Koh Dong-jin, executive vice president in charge of mobile R&D, to lead the company’s flagship mobile business division that has been struggling with profitability despite increased device sales. Shin Jong-kyun, the current mobile business chief who has been affectionately called “Mr. Galaxy,” will step back from day-to-day operations to focus more on long-term strategy and fostering new growth businesses, the company said. He still retains t

Samsung Group is expected to carry out a modest promotion of executives this week, reflecting a sense of crisis prevalent across its affiliates, industry sources said Monday. Samsung Electronics vice chairman and the group’s heir apparent Lee Jae-yong is also unlikely to take office as chairman to focus more on improving the profitability of the flagship electronics unit and other key companies. “Many executives do not expect to receive promotions this year. They just want to stay,” said a Samsu

Two consortiums, led by South Korean Internet giant Kakao and No. 2 telecom operator KT, were approved to launch the nation’s first Internet-only banks next year, the banking authority said Sunday. Under the government’s pilot program, the two banks will offer financial services from deposits, lending and credit cards to foreign exchange transactions through their online platforms only -- the first of their kind in Korea’s 23 years of financial history.Their operations are expected to start afte

South Korea’s largest search engine Naver is considering a lawsuit against global computing giant Hewlett-Packard, claiming that the company’s new IT unit copied its signature green search bar logo.  In April, Hewlett-Packard spun off its corporate hardware and services arm and named it Hewlett Packard Enterprise. The company also unveiled a new green rectangular logo, a distinct identity from the blue circular HP logo.“The rectangular logo represents values such as openness, simplicity and clie

South Korea’s No. 2 telecom carrier said Friday that it has won a pilot project from the government to build a nationwide public safety network based on Long Term Evolution technology – the first of its kind globally. The new Public Safety-LTE system aims to allow fire, police and rescue responders to better communicate with each other using a standard device that operates on the same frequencies. The government plans to pour 2 trillion won ($1.7 billion), attracting network operators and equipm

With China’s yuan taking the biggest step yet toward joining the dollar and euro as a top-rank reserve currency, the global economy may be approaching an era of greater stability.So say economists who highlight the dollar’s role in the biggest financial crises in recent decades. Drawn to the liquidity and security of the unit of the world’s biggest economy, investors and governments relied on the dollar and produced dislocations including historically low borrowing costs in the 2000s even as the

LONDON (Reuters) - The euro hit its weakest in more than six months against the yen on Monday as investors sought safety in gold and low-risk government debt after Friday’s attacks in Paris.Oil prices edged up after France launched large-scale air strikes against Islamic State targets in Syria.Asian shares fell to their lowest in six weeks but European shares’ losses were modest as markets reopened after the attacks that killed more than 130 people. U.S. stock index futures turned positive, indi

ANTALYA, Turkey (AFP) -- Leaders of the world‘s top economies vowed to seek a deal to stave off catastrophic global warming at an upcoming U.N. conference in Paris, according to a draft statement drawn up Monday at a summit in Turkey.Negotiators at the Group of 20 summit haggled though the night on the text of the statement as Saudi Arabia and India initially refused to include specific climate goals like curbing global warming to less than two degrees Celsius (3.6 Farenheit), sources said.“Clim

PARIS (AP) — French police raided more than 150 locations overnight as authorities released the names of two more potential suicide bombers involved in the Paris attacks— one born in Syria, the other a Frenchman wanted as part of a terrorism investigation.The raids came as the hunt continued for members of the sleeper cell that carried out last Friday‘s gun and bomb attacks that killed 129 people and as France launched its heaviest airstrikes on the Islamic State group’s de-facto capital in Syri

Samsung Electronics’ three co-CEOs were found Monday to have seen a drastic drop in their compensations this year. According to the company’s regulatory filing, vice chairman Kwon Oh-hyun, the highest-paid CEO, received a total salary of 3.82 billion won ($3.25 million), including 2.23 billion won in bonus, over the nine months that ended in September. The figure compared with 6.25 billion won he received during the same period last year. CEO Yoon Boo-keun, head of the consumer electronics busin