LG Display Co., South Korea's flat panel giant, will make an investment this year comparable to last year's in order to vie with rivals such as Samsung Electronics Co., its chief executive said Monday."We'll go with a similar level (of amount) to last year's, within the threshold of the EBITDA," LG Display CEO Han Sang-beom told reporters after a regular meeting held by the Korea Display Industry Association, for which Han has been named the new chairman.LG Display's EBITDA, or earnings before i

Pantech Co., a defaulted South Korean smartphone maker currently under court protection, will be put up for an opening bidding again after the latest attempt to sell the firm to a U.S. consortium fell through, a Seoul court said Monday.  The Seoul Central District Court has sought to sell the nation's No. 3 smartphone maker through an open bidding following the botched public tender in November that ended without a would-be buyer due to lack of interest.Pantech was almost sold to a U.S.-based co

Samsung Electronics Co., the world's top smartphone maker that recorded a three-year-low bottom line last year, posted the worst net sales on its home soil in eight years in that period, weakened by its sluggish handset business, an audit report showed Monday. Net sales of the South Korean tech powerhouse reached 20.7 trillion won ($18.8 billion) in Asia's fourth-largest economy in 2014, down 9 percent from a year earlier, according to the accountant's report on the company. Net sales refer to a

Samsung Electronics Co. is set to cut 10 percent of its development staff in the visual display division, a company source said Thursday.According to a source with knowledge of the matter, the firm is conducting one-on-one talks with the division's employees to discuss leaving the company.  The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the step has yet to be made public, said the company has already decided on some of the workers who have agreed to leave by end-March.A spokesman for th

South Korea's top conglomerate Samsung, which holds one of the leading smartphone makers Samsung Electronics Co. under its wing, was declared as the second-most valuable brand in the globe, data showed Thursday.The price tag on the Samsung brand was estimated at $81.7 billion in 2015, up 4 percent from a year earlier, according to the data released by market researcher Brand Finance. The top throne was taken by its bigger rival, Apple, whose brand value was estimated at $128.3 billion.The brand

Asiana Airlines Co., South Korea's No. 2 carrier, said Wednesday it has agreed on a settlement with some of the passengers on its 2013 flight that crash-landed in San Francisco, leaving three people dead."It is true that a settlement has been reached in the U.S. federal court with 72 passengers who suffered from the accident two years ago," a company official told Yonhap News Agency. "The financial terms of the agreement, however, is confidential."The official declined to comment further on the

The heir apparent of South Korea's top conglomerate, Samsung Group, has met with U.S. credit card company executives during his recent visit to the country, seeking possible tie-ups for its new mobile payment platform, Samsung Pay, the group's chief spokesman said Wednesday. Lee Jay-yong, the only son of the group owner Lee Kun-hee, held a meeting with a few chief executives of U.S. credit card firms over the course of his weeklong stay there, said Lee June, the head of Samsung's communications

South Korea's top family-controlled business giant, Samsung Group, is reorganizing staff at its affiliates, the chief spokesman said Wednesday."As far as I know, each affiliate is conducting (reshuffles of their workforces)," Lee Jun, Samsung Group's top communications official, told reporters. He said the decisions would be based on the judgments of each company and not on orders from the headquarters.Lee also implied that the group may reduce new hirings this year, saying recruitment would dep

Samsung Electronics Co., South Korea's tech powerhouse, has applied for an exclusive right to the names of its organic light-emitting diode TVs, local patent office sources said Wednesday, in what seems to be a pre-emptive move against a battle over similar brands with home rival LG Electronics Inc. in the premium lineup. Samsung submitted a trademark application for the five names -- Super UHD OLED, Ultra Super OLED, Samsung Super Ultra OLED, Ultra OLED and Super UHD -- in Seoul on Jan. 26, acc

South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co. ranks behind its competitors in investing in research and development for chips, a business segment that the tech firm has set out to expand to pick up the slack from weakening handset sales.According to market tracker IC Insights Inc., Samsung came in third after Intel Corp. and Qualcomm Inc. of the United States in R&D spending last year.Samsung allocated $2.96 billion in 2014, compared with Intel's $11.5 billion and Qualcomm's $5.5 billion, the report sai

South Korea's No. 2 tech giant LG Electronics Inc., which recently has been making efforts to tap deeper into the automobile sector, said Wednesday it has provided electronic parts to a concept car made by Italdesign Giugiaro, a design arm of Germany's Volkswagen Group.LG said the concept car "GEA" was being showcased at the Geneva International Motor Show, which runs until March 15. The concept car is equipped with electronics such as displays and cameras, including a 6-inch HD Curved plastic o

South Korea's No. 2 tech giant, LG Electronics Co., said Wednesday it plans to showcase a high-end smartphone later this year that will come with upgraded specs compared with its flagship G lineup, and narrow gaps with Samsung and Apple."We are planning to release a product that stands above the G series," said Cho Jun-ho, who heads LG's mobile business in a surprise move at the Mobile World Congress that runs in Barcelona, Spain, through Thursday. "It will be launched during the second half of

Samsung Electronics Co., the world's largest smartphone maker, said Wednesday its new mobile payment platform, Samsung Pay, will be available for use by the second half of this year, which is expected to bring changes to the financial technology industry.The South Korean tech giant said it is moving to clinch ties with six local credit card firms by the summer and is aiming to open the service to the public during the second half of 2015.It has already joined forces with at least 10 U.S. financi

Hyundai Motor Co., South Korea's leading automaker, said Tuesday that it has unveiled its all-new Tucson sport utility vehicle (SUV) at a motor show in Geneva in a bid to expand its presence in the fast-growing European SUV market.The Tucson is being showcased at the Geneva International Motor Show, which runs until March 15, along with other vehicles including the new i20 coupe, i30, i40 and ix20, all designed to target the European market, according to the automaker. "We will accelerate our pu

Amore Pacific Co., South Korea's leading cosmetics firm, said Tuesday that it would split its stock to boost the number of shares in circulation, making its stock more affordable for retail investors.Earlier in the day, the company's board of directors decided on a 10-1 stock split, with the face value of its common stock and preferred stock to be cut to 500 won per share from the current 5,000 won, meaning that the number of the company's outstanding shares will rise tenfold.The proposal is sub