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About Schmidt

Why tech firms here have high hopes over Google chairman's visit By Kim Yoo-chul Google appears to be looking to boost its investment in Korea, where it is seeing customers of its Web services increase rapidly thanks to the popularity of smartphones and other mobile Internet devices. Such expectations greet Google Chairman Eric Schmidt, who will be in Seoul this week on a trip tightly-scheduled with meetings with electronics companies and mobile-phone carriers as the Internet giant looks to expand here. Google’s interest in Korea had been casual in previous years as it struggled to compete with Korean search services Naver (www.naver.com) and Daum (www.daum.net). However, with the Internet moving to mobile devices, the popularity of Google’s products has been improving dramatically, as many of the country’s 20 million smartphone users own handsets powered by the company’s Android mobile operating system. An industry official told The Korea Times that Schmidt, who will hold a news conference at Google’s Korean headquarters, Tuesday, is preparing to make a publicity

Nov 6, 2011By Kim Yoo-chul
Tech & Science

CeBIT to highlight ’cyber security’

By Kim Yoo-chul Next year’s CeBIT will highlight cyber security as the technology fair’s top issue, said a senior executive from the show’s organizing committee. CeBIT is the world’s biggest trade exhibition showcasing digital information technology and telecommunications. The 2012 CeBIT exhibition will run from March 6 to 12 in Hannover, Germany. ``Last year’s top issue at the fair was cloud services, however, this year’s theme is `managing trust’ because we believe trust and security are more than important to governments, consumers and companies amid the era of digitalization,’’ said Frank Porschmann, senior vice president of Deutsche Messe. Deutsche Messe is the organizer of the CeBIT exhibition and the executive expects the upcoming event to inspire revenue growth. ``We have our business model, which is different from the International Consumer Electronics Show (ICES) in Las Vegas and IFA trade fair in Germany. With four platforms _ pro, gov, life and lab _ CeBIT will try to yield visible results for cyber security-related issues,’’ the executive said in a press c

Nov 2, 2011By Kim Yoo-chul
Tech & Science

Samsung Electronics at fork

By Kim Yoo-chul Samsung Electronics stands at a major crossroads, declared chief executive Choi Gee-sung, Monday. In an event to mark the technology giant’s 42nd birthday, the top executive said the Suwon, Gyeonggi Province-based outfit will gain sizable acquisitions and invest in existing and new businesses to ensure corporate sustainability. ``The global consumer electronics industry is facing a big turning point amid pessimistic views on slowing economic growth and uncertainties. Samsung needs to be aggressive,’’ said Choi in an opening speech at the ceremony packed with some 400 Samsung employees and executives in its headquarters in downtown Seoul. Previously, Samsung was keen to strike ``small deals’’ rather than pour money into bigger deals. Years ago Samsung dropped its ambitious $5 billion bid to buy U.S.-based flash memory chipmaker SanDisk preferring to stay low key and within the ``millions of dollars’’ range in merger and acquisition (M&A) deals. A Samsung spokesman confirmed the remarks by its CEO Choi, and declined to dish the dirt on potential M&As

Oct 31, 2011By Kim Yoo-chul
Tech & Science

LG, Sony closer

By Kim Yoo-chul LG Display, the world’s No. 2 manufacturer of flat screens, is looking to partner with Tokyo-based Sony as the latter mulls breaking up its strategic relationship with Samsung to cut costs. LG is planning its advanced, brighter OLED screens at better prices, sources familiar with the matter told The Korea Times, Monday. ``LG Display has keen interest to sell its OLED screens to the Japanese TV maker. The deal, if realized, is going to give a helping hand to client-strapped LG, which is suffering operating losses,’’ said an industry executive, requesting anonymity. For flat-screen makers, securing many big set-makers as clients is crucial for

Oct 31, 2011By Kim Yoo-chul
Tech & Science

Galaxy boosts Samsung’s bottom line

By Kim Yoo-chul Samsung Electronics posted an operating profit of 2.52 trillion won in the area of mobile gadgets in the third quarter, the company said Friday. This marks the first time that Samsung’s operating profit has surpassed 2 trillion won on a quarterly basis. Sales of mobile devices, including the Galaxy smart series and feature phones, amounted to 14.9 trillion won in the July-Sept. period, up 20 percent from the previous quarter, and the figure was a quarterly record. Details of its business were disclosed in its regulatory filing. The ratio of operating profit against sales reached a robust 16.9 percent. Overall, the tech firm recorded 41.27 trillion won in sales with operating profits reaching 4.25 trillion won. Net profit was 3.44 trillion won. Samsung’s operating profit beat forecasts by 1 trillion won and exceeded estimates by 50 billion won. ``Samsung sells finished devices such as smartphones and TVs, creating demand for components,’’ Lee Seung-joon, a Samsung spokesman, said Friday, explaining his firm’s better-than-expected performance.

Oct 28, 2011By Kim Yoo-chul
Tech & Science

Apple yet to affect Samsung bottom line

By Kim Yoo-chul Samsung Electronics is set to further surge throughout the remainder of this year in terms of profit on the bullish outlook of smartphones and strengthening views that chip prices have already hit the bottom. One noticeable thing is the world’s biggest chipmaker is benefiting from requests by the iPhone maker Apple to supply more operating mobile chips. Samsung and the California-based Apple are in patent disputes over wireless telecom- and design-related technologies used in tablets and smartphones, with court cases still pending in Milan and Sydney and Australia. Despite the deepening legal tussle with Samsung, Apple has agreed with Samsung to use Samsung chips in its next iPhones and iPads because Samsung is the sole company among other chip companies to guarantee output commitment, price and on-time delivery, according to Samsung executives. Samsung is ramping production of the so-called A6 chips for Apple _ a confirmation of Apple’s steady reliance on Samsung’s foundry operation. The Korea Times earlier exclusively reported business talks betwe

Oct 28, 2011By Kim Yoo-chul
Tech & Science

KT to halt investment in fixed line

By Kim Yoo-chul Telecommunications giant KT is ready to pull the plug on fixed-line telephony, which continues to be exposed as a decaying business model due to the rise in mobile and Internet communications. Company officials said the firm will no longer invest in its telephone network, while diverting spending to exploit the popularity of smartphones and other mobile Internet devices. The mainstream emergence of voice over Internet protocol services (VoIP), which allow carriers to provide cheaper voice rates than conventional fixed-line services, is also quickening the retirement of the latter. KT, the country’s largest fixed-line telephony operator and runner-up mobile carrier, makes more money selling mobile telephony and smarthone content than from fixed-line services. Meeting reporters on Thursday, Seo Yu-yeol, head of KT’s home customers division, declared there is ``no future’’ in fixed-line telephony. ``In just over a year, KT added 10 million smartphone customers and I think that’s very inspiring. Fixed-line voice services have been KT’s bread-and-butte

Oct 27, 2011By Kim Yoo-chul
Tech & Science

Up-for-sale Hynix reports Q3 loss

By Kim Yoo-chul Hynix Semiconductor, the world’s second-largest maker of computer memory chips, said Thursday it swung to a third-quarter net loss due to weakened demand for personal computers and other electronics products. The company lost 562.6 billion won (about $496.8 million) in the three months to September, after posting a record profit of 1.04 trillion won a year earlier. The loss is blamed on the sluggish global economy, battered by the eurozone debt crisis and stagnant U.S. growth, which has been hurting demand for chips and pushing down prices. Hynix, which trails domestic rival Samsung Electronics in DRAMs, is hoping for a fourth-quarter rebound and is encouraged about the rising demand for NAND flash chips used in advanced mobile Internet devices such as smartphones and touch-screen tablets, which are expected to sell better as Christmas approaches. Apple launched the newest version of its immensely popular smartphone, the iPhone 4s, earlier this month, and other electronics makers appear to have new phones and tablets they plan to release for the trad

Oct 27, 2011By Kim Yoo-chul
Tech & Science

STX targets improved soundness

No big M&A foreseeable, markets welcome decision By Kim Yoo-chul Korea’s shipping-shipbuilding conglomerate STX Group has finally found a clear way to improve its financial soundness. But this time it is not a plan for mergers and acquisitions (M&A). Instead of seeking big acquisitions for further external growth, the group has decided to cut its M&A appetite to stabilize its financial structure, a direct decision by its chairman. Financial markets were welcoming the decision because the change of its business roadmap is going to help the group focus on the group’s core shipbuilding-related businesses. Shares of STX and the group’s main affiliates rose more than 3 percent on Monday’s trading on South Korea’s main bourse and market analysts predict the shares will rise further coupled with positive signs in a turnaround for global shipbuilding-related sectors. ``The decision makes sense. We are considering buying more STX Group-related shares as STX still has initiatives to better compete with its rivals in the global shipbuilding and shipping markets,’’ said a fund

Oct 24, 2011By Kim Yoo-chul
Tech & Science

’Tech industry to recover in 2012’

Samsung SDS sees post-crisis opportunities By Kim Yoo-chul Steady industry advancements are making it possible for technology-driven companies, suffering from a decline in profits in the struggling global economy, to see opportunities next year. Leading information technology (IT) firms have been hit disproportionately hard by the economic turmoil in developing and developed markets with households expected to spend less on consumer electronics than a year ago. ``We believe the current market uncertainties are creating further business opportunities for firms because technology advancements are awakening idling demand for devices,’’ said Koh Soon-dong, chief executive of Samsung SDS, Monday. ``The recovery of the technology industry significantly helped businesses overcome difficulties during the `oil shock’ in the 1980s, the currency crisis in the 1990s and the dot-com bubble in the early-2000s,’’ Koh told The Korea Times. Breakthroughs in technology development are being made with companies bracing for uncertainties as they spend more on cost-cutting to produce `

Oct 24, 2011By Kim Yoo-chul
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