SK hynix, South Korea’s second-biggest memory chip maker, said Thursday that it has acquired the firmware unit of Softeq Development based in Minsk, Belarus, in Eastern Europe.The deal, which also includes not only buying the firmware technology but also bringing in its key assets such as talented engineers, was in line with its efforts to further boost the Korean company’s NAND flash memory solutions.“The company will be able to further bolster its global research and development, and competiti

Microsoft Asia Pacific president Cesar Cernuda is set to visit South Korea next week to examine the county’s market and seek expansionary opportunities in the mobile market, said industry sources claiming knowledge of the matter.A Microsoft Korea official confirmed that Cernuda will be coming to Korea as part of his annual tour to meet the company’s enterprise customers, and attend in-house meetings and marketing events. Cernuda, who was appointed the new Asia chief last year, will be coming to

An increase in global trade has created a borderless world and spurred competition, calling on businesses to develop and introduce technologies for a wide range of consumers with different tastes.A new market called for companies to adopt innovative strategies that include safeguarding their inventions by filing their intellectual properties as efficiently and globally as possible amid growing patent disputes.And this is where the so-called Intellectual Property Five comes in to accommodate the

The Internet, one of the world’s greatest inventions of the 20th century, faces a possible makeover as it is being threatened by a new U.S. rule that can overthrow its openness and indiscriminate accessibility.Concerns over the possible breakdown in net neutrality, in which all Internet data should be treated equally, have been rising especially since the U.S. Federal Communications Commission lost a court battle against Verizon early this year.The two sides have been duking it out over net neut

With Samsung Electronics expected to unveil its first smartphone embedded with the Tizen operating system next month, a new competitor is set to join Android and Apple in the mobile OS market.Industry watchers said small OS players such as Tizen, Firefox and Windows will increase their presence as demand for low-end smartphones increases, especially in developing countries.Samsung’s Tizen smartphones will reportedly roll out first in emerging countries including Russia and India, in an apparent

Samsung Electronics’ net sales in China surpassed those in South Korea for the first time in 2013, an analysis of the tech giant’s corporate report showed Wednesday.A review of the company’s corporate data by Yonhap showed that Samsung’s net sales in China hit 40.15 trillion won ($39.22 billion) last year, far greater than the 22.78 trillion won in its home market. The firm began compiling Chinese sales figures from 2007.“Net sales” refers to the amount of sales generated after deducting interna

LIG Nex1, a South Korean defense company, said Tuesday that it would showcase a variety of defense products ranging from robots to military products during an exhibition at KINTEX from June 1 to 4 in Ilsan, Gyeonggi Province.It will introduce the company’s mobile bird deterrent robots, better known as “the bird strike,” which are used at civilian and military airports to prevent birds from colliding with airplanes.Also, the company will feature electronic full-body wearables allowing soldiers to

The United Arab Emirates and South Korea have agreed in principle to sign a lucrative contract for the operation of four South Korean-built nuclear reactors in the Middle Eastern country, South Korea’s commerce minister said Tuesday.The agreement was reached during South Korean President Park Geun-hye’s recent trip to the UAE to witness the first installation of a South Korean reactor at a power plant in Barakah, some 300 kilometers west of Abu Dhabi.Negotiations for the contract on the operatio

Hyundai Mipo Dockyard, a leading South Korean shipbuilder, said Tuesday it has won a $102 million order from a Singaporean company to build two LPG carriers.Hyundai Mipo, a subsidiary of Hyundai Heavy Industries, the world’s largest shipbuilder, said it would start building the vessels from March 2016 and deliver them to Principals of Eastern Pacific a year later. Principals of Eastern Pacific is a subsidiary of Eastern Pacific Shipping, an international ship management company headquartered in

South Korea’s economy is expected to grow 3.7 percent this year, a state-run think tank forecast Tuesday, amid expectations that the economy might be recovering from a long-term slump.Reflecting recent changes in calculation methodology for gross domestic product, however, the Korea Development Institute said its latest growth outlook represented about a 0.1-0.2 percentage point downgrade from the previous growth outlook unveiled in November last year.“The actual downgrade stemmed mostly from a

Daum and Kakao Corp. said Monday the planned merger between the search portal and mobile messenger will help the new company called “Daum Kakao” to make headway in globalizing its services.Neither drew a clearer road map for competing with overseas IT giants as their top priority is consolidating the two companies by October this year. Daum will be the surviving entity, and Kakao will dissolve in the process, they said.“We will continue to discuss all other details as the two companies merge,” D

Watch out Naver, here comes Daum and Kakao.The merger between Daum, the nation’s second-largest search engine, and Kakao, the most-used mobile messaging service, surprised many observers, who said that it was a “game-changing move” that can potentially shake things up, at least here in Korea.But globally, they may find it challenging to stand out among heavyweights such as Naver, Facebook, Tencent and Google in this mobile age, or even win a foothold in the mobile messaging market dominated by W

Hyundai Motor, South Korea’s largest carmaker, has adopted a two-track pricing strategy for its brand new Sonata sedan, asking for a “fair price” for higher trims while strengthening the value proposition for more mainstream models that will be sold in the highly competitive U.S. market, company officials said Friday.The automaker is offering eight trim levels for the 2015 model year Sonata, two more than the outgoing sixth-generation sedan. It said by adding more choices, consumers can pick the

The won was set to stall a three-week rally amid speculation South Korean authorities acted to limit the currency’s appreciation.The Bank of Korea and the Finance Ministry probably bought $1.5 billion on May 14 and around half of that amount on May 20 to intervene in the foreign-exchange market, Cliff Tan, the Hong Kong-based East Asian head of global markets research for Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ wrote in a note yesterday. Finance Minister Hyun Oh-seok said this week that policy measures sho

South Korea’s commerce minister on Friday urged continued efforts by public firms, especially energy companies, to reduce their debts and enhance their productivity as the government pushes speedy normalization of their debt-laden business and lax management.The renewed call came at a special meeting with the heads of 16 public firms under the wings of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy to review their promised efforts.“While urging the company heads to implement their earlier normalizat

Korea prides itself for being superfast at adopting and building new things like none other.It can make planes, trains and automobiles, and even ships, robots and telecommunication networks faster than most. This culture of “ppalli ppalli,” in which everything has to be taken care of in a matter of seconds, has paved the way for it to become one of Asia’s leading economies.But none of those fancy and fast things Korea likes to show off seem noteworthy when it comes to saving lives in the face of

They float as if flying through the air. They can move faster and hardly make a sound compared to conventional trains with wheels.Magnetic levitation trains can potentially emerge as South Korea’s next-generation rail transportation, offering a cleaner, quieter commute in metropolitan areas.After 25 years of developing its own urban “maglev” train consisting of homemade components, the country is set to introduce the world’s second maglev that can go up to 110 kph on a 6.1 km track through Inche

A Deutsche Bahn AG InterCity Express train, manufactured by Siemens AG, sits on a platform at Berlin Central Station in Germany. French officials have urged Alstom to consider a rival offer from Germany’s Siemens, after GE tried to buy the French firm. (Bloomberg)Siemens wrote to Alstom seeking information for a possible bid for the French energy and transportation company Alstom, said French Economy Minister Arnaud Montebourg.The Germany company “wrote this morning to Alstom to request details,

Beset by a series of scandals and losses, South Korea’s biggest telecom company KT Corp. is aiming to extricate itself from the doldrums by the latter half of this year by providing the fastest network service available.Introducing its “GiGA” service, which converges the technologies of Wi-Fi, Long Term Evolution and copper wires, KT aims to change the market, in which telecom companies are heavily focused on attracting consumers through irregular pricing strategies.KT CEO Hwang Chang-gyu, a for

Four in 10 Korean households are expected to have a tablet PC this year, according to Strategy Analytics.The global research firm said that Korea’s tablet penetration rate per household is forecast to stand at around 44 percent in 2014.The rate lags behind other advanced high-tech economies. North America’s penetration rate is forecast to reach 54.1 percent this year, and 39.8 percent in the eurozone. Samsung Galaxy tablet devices sit on display at Samsung Electronics’ pavilion at the Mobile Wor