Samsung Electronics on Thursday warned of weaker earnings this year amid slowing demand for consumer electronics, especially its mainstay smartphones.In a regulatory filing, the Korean tech giant said its fourth-quarter net profit fell 40 percent to 3.2 trillion won ($2.7 billion) from a year ago despite a 16 percent gain in operating profit to 6.14 trillion won. A Samsung Electronics sign stands at the company’s Seoul headquarters. YonhapFor the whole year, the company posted 200.6 trillion won

The members of Samsung Electronics’ mobile business and chip business units will likely enjoy a bonus party this week as they will receive the highest amount of incentives for 2015 at the firm, according to news reports on Wednesday.The company has reportedly informed its executives and employees about the detailed plan for annual incentives, dubbed the overall performance incentive, on the day. Samsung Electronics’ head office in Seoul. (Yonhap)The tech giant rewards its executives and employee

The Korean government on Wednesday announced a set of new plans to support start-ups and encourage entrepreneurship overall with aims to become one of the top seven start-up accelerating nations by the end of this year. 　The Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning unveiled its 2016 work plans that, among other things, aim to vitalize the start-up sector and support research and development projects for ICT, science and biotechnology. 　The ministry did not specify the budget for the plans bu

Stocks held by foreign investors in Samsung Electronics dropped to the lowest level in 27 months amid growing concerns about the global economy, data showed Wednesday. Offshore investors owned 48.97 percent of Samsung Electronics shares as of Monday, marking the lowest since Oct. 2, 2013, when the figure came to 48.94 percent, according to data by the Korea Exchange. Foreign stock ownership of the country’s top-cap company has been on the decline since July, when it reached a yearly peak of 51.8

Despite global economic woes last year, LG Chem saw its operating profit increase by 39.1 percent to 1.82 trillion won, compared to the preceding year, according to the firm’s annual earnings report released Tuesday.　　The company’s annual revenue, however, decreased to 20.21 trillion won, down 10.5 percent from the year before.　The chemical and battery business affiliate of LG Group said in the earnings report that “Overall sales have decreased due to slow recovery of the global economy and oil

In response to the launch of video-streaming service Netflix in the Korean market earlier this month, SK Broadband, an Internet and pay TV services provider, has introduced a new mobile media platform. Called Oksusu, which is the Korean word for corn, it combines the firm’s on-demand mobile TV service Btv and video-streaming service Hoppin.　The wholly owned subsidiary of SK Telecom said it would focus on making a wide range of video content available on the new platform.　Oksusu will feature the

South Korean panel giant LG Display Co. said Tuesday it swung to a net loss in the fourth quarter from a year earlier due to falling global panel prices.The net loss came to 13.5 billion won ($11.2 million) in the October-December period, compared to a profit of 389.2 billion won posted a year earlier, LG Display said in a regulatory filing. (Yonhap)Sales dropped 10.1 percent on-year to 7.49 trillion won in the fourth quarter, and its operating profit crashed 90.3 percent over the cited period t

South Korean tech giant LG Electronics Inc. said Tuesday its net loss narrowed in the fourth quarter from a year earlier on strong sales of premium TVs and home appliances, despite a poor performance from its smartphone business.Net loss came to 140.4 billion won ($117 million) in the October-December period, compared with a deficit of 205.6 billion won during the same period in 2014, LG Electronics said in a regulatory filing.Sales shed 4.7 percent on-year to 14.5 trillion won, and operating pr

LG Electronics said Tuesday its car parts business division swung to a profit in the fourth quarter for the first time since it started releasing its separate earnings last year. 　The company said the Vehicle Component division, which produces parts for automotive infotainment systems, posted 520.4 billion won ($432 million) in sales and 9.7 billion won in operating profits in the October-December period.A company logo is displayed at the LG Electronics headquarters in Seoul (Yonhap)　LG establis

Mobile carrier SK Telecom said Tuesday that the company and Finnish network equipment firm Nokia have successfully conducted a test run of a group communication system, which enables hundreds of users to communicate over the network at the same time. Technicians from SK Telecom and Nokia run a test trial of the group communication system. (SKT)Since the current LTE network hits a communications bottleneck when a large group of people try to make calls or send messages at the same time, it fell s

South Korean chipmaker SK hynix said Tuesday despite record sales of 18.7 trillion won ($16 billion) last year, its fourth-quarter operating profits plunged by 40.7 percent. 　The company’s annual sales saw an on-year growth of 10 percent -- the third straight year of record sales -- however, it was hit hard by weakening chip demands globally in the October-December period and operating profits fell to 988.8 billion won. SK hynix’s main factory in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province　Sales stood at 4.4 tril

Appliance chief says the company is always open to M&As

LG PORTABLE SPEAKERS BOAST UNIQUE DESIGN -- Models pose with tech giant LG Electronics’ tumbler-shaped portable speaker, dubbed the Portable Speaker 360 (left), and a speaker with a wooden body, named the Portable Speaker Classic (right), in Seoul on Monday. (LGE)

SKT to commercialize fourfold faster upload technology