Samsung Group’s leadership transfer to the next generation is speeding up on the heels of Friday’s shareholder approval of the crucial merger of Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries. The merged entity, set to be launched on Sept. 1 as Samsung C&T, will become the de facto holding company of South Korea’s largest conglomerate. The merger marks a watershed moment for Samsung’s restructuring that started in 2013 to increase the influence of Samsung Electronics vice chairman Lee Jay-yong, the heir appar

LG Display, Korea’s top display-maker, said Thursday that its production of large LCD and OLED panels has hit the 1.5 billion mark for the first time within the industry.The new milestone comes after the company started producing large LCD panels back in 1995, the company said. Large panels, those 9.1 inches or larger, are used for computer monitors, laptop computer screens and TVs. The 1.5 billion units are equivalent to 236,793,391 square meters of panels, the company said. “LG Display has con

Samsung Group’s top executives on Wednesday expressed confidence in winning the upcoming crucial vote on the merger deal between Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries. “We are confident about the merger approval. We want to win big,” said Samsung C&T co-CEO Kim Shin before attending a weekly executive meeting of Samsung affiliates at the group’s Seoul headquarters. “There are also several foreign shareholders who support the deal. We are making all-out efforts to attract favorable votes.”Cheil Indust

Tesla, the U.S. electric sports car maker, is turning its eyes to Korea in its latest push for the all-important Asian market amid lukewarm Chinese sales. According to a job posting on its Japanese website on Tuesday, the carmaker is searching for a vice president who will lead its Japanese and Korean sales teams. “Our Japan-Korea sales vice president will be focused on all of Tesla’s direct sales activities in the Japanese and Korean markets, ensuring the attainment of both short- and long-term

Samsung Group on Monday unveiled 10 new research and development projects on smart sensor materials and system software it would support as part of its efforts to nurture the nation’s future growth-engine technologies. Samsung launched the R&D support program in 2013 with a total budget of 1.5 trillion won ($1.3 billion) for the next 10 years. Thus far some 160 projects have been selected for support.While the program focuses on three key areas -- basic science, materials and information and com

Samsung C&T is thoroughly gauging the decisions of foreign investors, most of whom finished their absentee voting last week on the company’s planned merger with Cheil Industries, the de facto holding company of Samsung Group. With the voting results to be revealed at a shareholders meeting Friday, their decisions are expected to play a key role in determining the crucial 8.9 trillion won ($7.93 billion) merger for the nation’s largest conglomerate’s management transfer to a new generation. Forei

LG Electronics on Thursday held a meeting of advisers on corporate social responsibility in Beijing as part of the Korean tech giant’s renewed commitment to more socially responsible activities at its overseas operations. The company has held the CSR meeting in Korea and the U.S. since 2010. The Chinese event was first of its kind, the company said. Representatives of local civic and academic groups, including Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, attended the first Beijing meeting to discuss LG’s

SK hynix, South Korea’s leading chip maker, said Thursday it would start rolling out its first ultrafast Universal Flash Storage, or UFS chips, in its recent push for the soaring mobile device market this year. The company said talks were already ongoing with global handset makers to supply its 64-gigabyte embedded memory based on the UFS 2.0, which is the next-generation NAND flash-based memory standard. The company currently provides NAND flash chips for Apple’s iPhone 6. SK hynix said its UFS

LG Group on Wednesday unveiled a set of new measures to boost the sluggish economy amid unfavorable conditions such as the Middle East respiratory syndrome outbreak, a prolonged drought and the latest Greek financial crisis. The measures come as the nation’s fourth-largest conglomerate joins other big business groups, including Samsung and Hyundai Motor, in spurring the dull domestic consumption. As part of the efforts, LG said it plans to purchase gift cards worth 7 billion won ($6.2 million) f

Samsung Electronics on Tuesday estimated second-quarter profits would reach 6.9 trillion won ($6.1 billion), continuing their upward trend after its operating income plunged in the third quarter of last year. Samsung’s profits fell 4.03 percent in the three months ending June compared to a year earlier, but the figure was up 15.38 percent from the previous quarter this year, the Korean tech giant said in a regulatory filing.Sales were 48 trillion won in the quarter, a slight 1.87 percent increas

KT, South Korea’s largest telecom carrier, said Monday it had started construction work on a solar power system in Vietnam’s Quang Binh Province. The project is part of a slew of infrastructure building projects in developing countries sponsored by the Korean government’s Economic Development Cooperation Fund.KT plans to complete the system by 2017 so that some 1,300 households and public organizations in the Vietnamese province are provided with a stable electricity supply. Quang Binh Province,

Daum Kakao, South Korea’s leading search engine, said Monday its taxi app KakaoTaxi had received more than 5 million calls since its introduction in March. According to the company, the nationwide service has 110,000 drivers and daily calls for taxis have hit 150,000 per day. The smartphone-based taxi-hailing app was launched on March 31 after its U.S. rival Uber suspended its budget services due to resistance from local governments and taxi drivers. Unlike Uber which uses unlicensed, crowd-sour

SK C&C, South Korea’s IT service provider, said Monday it recently completed Bangladesh’s online national network system, paving the way to expand the country’s e-government services. The company, an affiliate of SK Group, secured the 32 billion won ($29 million) project in 2012, which aims to connect 368 websites of the central government and public organizations through a single Internet-based network. In Bangladesh, public information used to be managed separately across local governments, bu

LG Display said Monday it would start mass producing the world’s thinnest full LCD touch screen for laptops, which combines the LCD and touch sensor and allows slimmer device design, from later this year.Unlike existing “add-on” touch screen technology that puts a touch panel as an extra layer on the LCD panel, the company’s Advanced In-cell Touch or AIT technology has the touch sensor layer embedded in the LCD. The in-cell type display, which doesn’t require additional cover glass, not only red

Samsung C&T on Sunday rebuffed a report by global shareholder adviser Institutional Shareholder Services that recommended its shareholders to oppose the proposed merger with Cheil Industries, the de facto holding company of Samsung Group. Samsung’s construction and trading unit said it was concerned that the report would mislead investors. “Despite the projection of a 22.6 percent stock plunge in the case of a merger failure, the ISS report recommended Samsung C&T shareholders to vote against th

Samsung Group on Thursday unveiled a set of new measures to support farming households and the tourism industry, both hit hard by a record drought and the outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome. The plans come after Samsung Electronics vice chairman Lee Jay-yong, the de facto leader of South Korea’s largest conglomerate, apologized last week for mishandling the MERS outbreak at a group-affiliated hospital. As part of the new plans, Samsung will purchase merchandise coupons worth 30 billion

The headquarters of Samsung C&T in southern Seoul YonhapA South Korean court on Wednesday rejected an injunction request by U.S. hedge fund Elliott Associates to block a proposed merger of two Samsung Group affiliates, paving the way for the deal proceedings crucial for the group’s leadership transition. Elliott, the third-largest shareholder of Samsung C&T, the group’s construction and trading unit, filed two injunctions early this month, asking the court to stop a shareholder vote on July 17 o

LG Group chairman Koo Bon-moo (left) delivers the emblem of LG Global Challenger, a fully funded overseas study and exploration program for college students, to student representatives at the group’s headquarters in Yeouido-dong, western Seoul, on Wednesday. This year’s program has selected 140 students of 35 teams. LG Group　 

Qualcomm, the U.S. chipmaker, said Wednesday it would invest up to 100 billion won ($90 million) in Korean technology start-ups in a move to help foster innovation and entrepreneurship in the Korean economy. The announcement was made when executive chairman Paul Jacobs visited Korea this week to celebrate the company’s 30th anniversary and 25 years of strong relations with Korea. The company said it intends to expand its involvement in the Korean start-up scene with both direct and indirect inve