LG Electronics said Tuesday it would seek to consolidate its status as one of the world’s largest home appliance makers by 2014 by taking advantage of “smart” technology.The firm said in a statement it would target double-digit sales growth from its home appliance business this year and was aiming for sales of $20 billion from the sector in 2014.“This year will be the beginning of a new era of hom

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ― Intel Corp. is paying $1.5 billion to end a fight it started with Nvidia Corp. over a key computer technology.The legal battle centered Nvidia’s ability to make “chipsets” that are compatible with Intel’s latest processors ― a fight that has implications for many of the world’s computer users, since Intel and Nvidia’s chips are ubiquitous.Nvidia is a top maker of graphics chip

GM Daewoo Auto and Technology Co. aims to export more than 1.8 million vehicles and knockdown kits under the Chevrolet brand this year, its president Mike Arcamone said Monday.The Korean unit of GM will also launch eight new vehicles to Korea, instead of the originally planned seven, this year. Four of the eight models will be those in segments the company does not currently compete in, he added.H

Top Korean carmaker confident of raising U.S. market share to 5 percentHyundai Motor Co. will focus on boosting quality and brand image as it steps up its challenge for global automobile leadership, vice chairman Chung Eui-sun said Monday. “Hyundai’s biggest challenge is to secure competitiveness in terms of quality in order to improve the brand image,” Chung said at the North American Internation

After a year of fiery growth, micro-blogging site Twitter is seeing a sharp drop in traffic in Korea while social networking hotspot Facebook continues to grow, figures show. According to Internet market research firm KoreanClick on Monday, Twitter’s page views in the last week of 2010 fell to about 25 million from nearly 45 million three months ago. The number of unique visitors ― people who visi

Korea’s low-cost airlines showed improved performances last year thanks to a surge in demand for air travel and expanded routes, industry data showed Monday.The country’s biggest discount carrier Jeju Air Co. posted 158 billion won ($143 million) in sales last year, up 80 percent from a year earlier, data showed. It did not post its operating profit, but its operating loss came to a smaller-than-e

Energy, retail giant plans to hire 2,800 new employeesGS Group plans to increase its investments 10 percent to more than 2.2 trillion won ($1.9 billion) this year to strengthen its core businesses of energy, retail and construction and expand overseas activities. Korea’s seventh largest business group said on Monday it aims to post 55 trillion won in sales, up 5.7 percent from last year. “While fo

Multinational drug companies are installing young and aggressive leaders to head their Korean operations in an increasingly competitive local market. Ranga Welaratne, 38, was appointed on Jan. 3 as the new head of the Korean branch of Sanofi-Pasteur, Sanofi-Aventis group’s vaccine division, becoming the latest CEO in their 30s to 40s to lead a multinational pharmaceutical firms’ Korean branch. Hav

A fresh price war among coffee vendors looms as a domestic franchised shop began to sell its standard product at close to one-fifth the market price last week.Manoffin, owned by popular local pizza franchise Mr. Pizza Corp., offers Hawaiian Kona coffee, one of the most popular brands here, at 790 won ($0.70) per cup. This price is far lower than its peers from Starbucks, Coffee Bean and other bran

LAS VEGAS ― Samsung Electronics’ heir apparent Lee Jae-yong on Friday strongly supported his father Lee Kun-hee’s drive for challenge and change. “(Chairman Lee) is someone who is constantly mounts new challenges,” Lee said from Las Vegas where he was attending the Consumer Electronics Show, the largest electronics tradeshow in the world. “Also, the chairman has DNA that makes it unbearable for hi