WINNERS & LOSERS
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NCsoft
, Korea’s largest online game developer announced Friday that its first quarter operating profit for this year increased more than three-fold from a year earlier, on the back of robust sales of old titles.
The developer said that operating profit stood at 55.5 billion won ($50.2 million), up 348.4 percent on year-end. At the same time, the company’s sales and net profit also rose to 184.9 billion won and 52.3 billion won, respectively, up 31 percent and 321.9 percent.
The company said the increase was mainly due to an unexpected sales increase of titles such as “Lineage” and “Aion.” Sales of the two titles, which were released in 1998 and 2008, respectively, were 66 billion won and 28.3 billion won, up 51 percent and 13 percent each.
The stock price of
Namyang Dairy Products
, a major local dairy company in Korea, plunged to 1,004,000 won ($907.7) Friday, down 10.1 percent from May 6, after allegations of abuse meted out against its distributors stirred a nationwide backlash.
The market capitalization of Namyang on the day stood at 722.8 billion won, down 81.4 billion won from 804.2 billion won five days ago.
The scandal began when a phone conversation between a Namyang salesperson and a distributor, in which the salesman cursed at the store owner, emerged online on May 3.
The backlash was aggravated by news that Hong Won-sik, the chairman of Namyang, recently sold 6,538 shares of his company, was revealed.
Local industry watchers say that the downward trend is expected to continue because Namyang’s market share is decreasing as a result of the nationwide boycott.