Samsung BioLogics CEO Kim Tae-han on Friday apologized to the shareholders for inconveniences caused by the recent accounting fraud ruling issued by South Korea’s Securities and Futures Commission, pledging to do his best to minimize damage to the firm’s valuation and business activities. “We apologize for any inconvenience that you have suffered in exercising property rights as a result of the suspension of trading of shares due to the SFC’s unwillingness to recognize the Company’s transparency

Singaporean gaming device developer Razer introduced the Razer Phone 2, a gaming smartphone, in South Korea on Friday, with aims to entice mobile gamers in one of the world’s biggest markets for video gaming and esports.　The Razer Phone 2 will officially begin sales next Tuesday, exclusively via local distributor All Life Technology and CJ Hello, a minor mobile carrier and cable TV operator in Korea.  The Razer Phone 2 (Razer)The new gaming smartphone is officially priced at 990,000 won ($884),

`LINEAGE REMASTERED` UNVEILED -- NCSoft CEO Kim Taek-jin introduces “Lineage Remastered,” an upgraded version of the company’s flagship online PC game “Lineage,” at a launch event in Seoul on Thursday. The new “Lineage,” fitted with improved graphics, an auto play mode, new character classes and battle modes, was launched in celebration of the game’s 20-year anniversary. (Yonhap)

South Korea’s three major telecommunication providers, SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus, will officially deploy the world’s first commercial fifth-generation services here Saturday by sending out the first 5G signals in Korea together.Despite a recent fire at the Ahyeon branch of KT in Seoul, which led to a major network blackout and the cancellation of 5G demo sessions and promotional showcase events this week, the three Korean telcos will commit to their original 5G deployment schedule, they said.F

South Korean biopharmaceutical company Celltrion announced Thursday that the US Food and Drug Administration had approved Truxima, a biosimilar referencing Rituxan, for the treatment of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.Truxima is the first-ever Rituxan biosimilar to be approved in the US and is therefore expected to reap gains from being an exclusive product in the drug segment. It was developed by Celltrion and will be marketed in the US by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries.Celltrion`s headquarters in Songd

SECURITIESKOREA INVESTMENT & SECURITIESKorea Investment & Securities is quickly becoming Asia’s leading investment bank, as it increases its presence in major global markets while securing a stable profit model.The Korean securities firm has been pursuing a two-track model combining investment banking with asset management and trading, with aims to develop a stable profit model. As a result of such efforts, Korea Investment & Securities posted net profit of 410.9 billion won ($

INNOVATIVE SERVICES/ BANKKB KOOKMIN BANKSouth Korea’s KB Kookmin Bank is continuing to digitally transform its diverse finance service offerings, with the aim of delivering more innovative and convenient banking services to its customers in both online and offline settings.　Bringing a digital touch to traditional mobile finance apps, KB introduced a chatbot banking platform last year called “Liiv Talk Talk,” which allows customers to activate certain banking services by convers

Samsung BioLogics said Wednesday that it has filed an administrative suit against South Korea’s financial regulator over its ruling earlier this month that the company had violated accounting regulations by intentionally inflating its profits ahead of its market listing in 2016.　The biopharmaceuticals manufacturer under Samsung Group said that it was also seeking a court injunction to nullify the penalties imposed by the Financial Services Commission, including recommendations to dismiss its chi

SK Holdings said Tuesday that it had acquired a 270 billion won ($239 million) stake in Lingbao Wason Copper Foil, a Chinese manufacturer of copper foil, an integral metal component used to build batteries that power electric vehicles.　With the acquisition, the parent company of South Korea’s third-largest conglomerate, SK Group, is now the second-largest shareholder of China’s top copper foil manufacturer.  (Yonhap)Copper foil is extremely thin and its production is a delicate process. Only six

Dutch health care giant Philips on Tuesday announced the launch of Lumify, a portable, app-based ultrasound solution compatible with Android mobile devices, in South Korea.According to the company, Lumify delivers data acquired via portable ultrasound transducers to connected Android devices through a mobile app, allowing health care providers to deliver ultrasound scans anywhere, anytime. In short, they would not need to access a cart-based ultrasound system.　 Lumify (Philips Korea)Philips had

Facebook said Monday that Jung Ki-hyun, the former chief business officer of Naver-owned mobile messenger Line, has been appointed as the new chief of the US social networking giant’s operations in South Korea.　An expert businessman with over 15 years of experience in the local information and communications technology sector, Jung will assist Korean corporate clients in using the Facebook platform to grow in both Korean and overseas markets, the company said.  Facebook Korea`s new Country Manag

SK Biopharmaceuticals, the new drug development unit of South Korea’s telecom-to-energy conglomerate SK Group, said Monday that it had submitted a new epilepsy drug candidate to the US Food and Drug Administration seeking marketing approval.SK Biopharm said it had submitted a new drug application for Cenobamate, which is intended to treat epilepsy, a neurological disorder characterized by recurrent seizures. If approved on schedule, the drug is expected to hit the market within the first half of

Kakao’s smart speaker Kakao Mini can now read out loud KakaoTalk messages sent to your phone -- a feature that users have long been calling for.Kakao said Tuesday that Kakao Mini has been updated to include the new function. Users can go to the settings on the Kakao Mini configuration app to activate the feature.The new function is made available through a combination of natural language processing and voice recognition engines developed by Kakao, the company said. Messages from one-on-one chatr

South Korean biopharmaceutical company Celltrion said Monday that its first-ever chemical combination drug for use by patients with HIV-1 infection has been approved by the US Food and drug Administration.　Developed by Celltrion, Temixys is a tablet-type drug that targets HIV-1, short for Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1. It is a next-generation modified drug combining the properties of GSK’s Zeffix (lamivudine) and Gilead Sciences’ Viread (tenofovir disoproxil fumarate).The newly-approved ta

After rising to become one of the easiest and most popular payment methods among Korean users through its flagship messenger service, Kakao Pay announced Monday it is expanding its business with an easy-to-use investment facilitator platform.The mobile finance unit of South Korean mobile messaging giant Kakao announced the launch of a new service, Kakao Investment, which lets users invest in various projects through the KakaoTalk messenger without the need to install a separate app. The service

South Korean internet giant Naver said Friday that it would use a new “green dot” interactive search button as the core of its new design direction for its mobile site, aiming to bring smarter and more integrated web search functions to users.　“The ‘green dot’ is Naver’s new design identity and a central part of the company’s efforts to address various changes (in the internet space) that will continue to evolve in the future,” Kim Seung-eon, Naver’s Head of Design, said during a keynote speech

The inaugural esports competition for the globally popular survival shooting game “Fortnite Battle Royale” will take place in South Korea next month, bringing a new addition to the country’s active competitive gaming landscape. 　Epic Games, the US-based video game company behind “Fortnite,” plans to hold “Fortnite Korea Open 2018” on Dec. 15 at Korea University’s Hwajung Gymnasium. Players will compete for a 1 billion won ($885,000) donation to charity, according to the company.“The event marks

South Korea’s second-largest chipmaker SK hynix said Thursday that it has developed next-generation dynamic random-access memory, 16 gigabits DDR5, which offers speed and improved power efficiency to meet demand from sectors with intensive computing needs, such as big data analytics and artificial intelligence.The chipmaker plans to mass produce the new product from 2020, when demand for DDR5 RAM is expected to peak on the back of a growing number of data-intensive apps requiring faster and more

Samsung SDS, an information and communications technology solutions company under South Korea’s Samsung Group, on Thursday hosted an inaugural developer’s conference to share its know-how in next-generation technologies including artificial intelligence and blockchain.　In its first edition, “Techtonic 2018” brought together some 1,000 IT developers, college students and industry officials with master’s and doctorate degrees in IT development to discuss successful cases of business innovation usi

South Korea’s biggest video game convention kicks off in Busan on Thursday, showcasing a wide range of new PC, mobile and virtual reality games being developed by major game companies here.G-Star 2018 features nearly 3,000 booths and brings together more than 650 game companies from 30 countries. US-based Epic Games, behind the hit survival shooting game “Fortnite Battle Royale” is the event’s main sponsor this year and the first foreign game company to host the expo.Korean game developers and p