South Korean cellco SK Telecom said in a filing with the Korea Exchange that it will bid for a stake in local Hynix Semiconductor, the world’s second largest computer memory chipmaker.
According to reports, the 15% stake is valued at about US$2.3bn. STX…
South Korean cellco SK Telecom said in a filing with the Korea Exchange that it will bid for a stake in local Hynix Semiconductor, the world’s second largest computer memory chipmaker.
According to reports, the 15% stake is valued at about US$2.3bn. STX Corp, a South Korean holding company, has also expressed its interest in the stake.
If successful, the transaction would be another move by SK Telecom to diversify its operations, away from South Korean’s saturated telecom market.
A few months ago SK was reportedly considering acquiring a stake in beleaguered US video/DVD rental chain Blockbuster. DISH Network ultimately won the bankruptcy court auction to acquire substantially all the assets of Blockbuster.
Before that, in February, SK Telecom had submitted a bid to buy Indonesian cable TV and internet company First Media.
The company also upped its stake in Malaysian WiMax operator Packet One Networks (P1) to benefit from the company’s expected strong growth in Malaysia’s broadband market.
Similarly, rival fixed and mobile operator KT Corp. recently said it was planning to generate almost half its revenues from non-telecom areas by 2015, up from a quarter. CEO and chairman Lee Suk-chae told a news conference that priorities would be financial convergence and cloud computing. KT Capital, a unit of KT Corp., has over the last few months, built up its stake in credit card company BC Card.
