SK hynix CEO Park Sung-wook on Tuesday received a Gold Tower, also known as the Order of Industrial Service Merit, the country’s highest decoration for a businessperson, for contributing to the semiconductor industry and creating new jobs. Park, who took office in 2012, was especially honored for his continued efforts to hire talented people without considering their educational background. Of the new employees hired this year, more than 33 percent were high school or vocational college graduate

COLLABORATION FOR SMART HOME -- Cho Young-hoon (left), head of SK Telecom‘s smart home TF, and Kim Hyeog-pyo, vice president of Dongbu Daewoo Electronics, pose at the signing ceremony of a memorandum of understanding in Seoul on Tuesday. The mobile carrier and the electronics maker will work together to launch home appliances which can be remotely controlled by SKT’s smartphone apps. (SKT)

  cap-SKT Samsung GearSAMSUNG SMARTWATCH HITS SHELVES -- Korea’s No. 1 mobile carrier SK Telecom said Monday it has exclusively launched Samsung Electronics’ Gear S2 Band Classic, a standalone smartwatch that enables users to send text messages and make calls without being paired to a handset. (SKT)

LG OVEN RANGE RECOGNIZED FOR INNOVATION --LG Electronics said Monday its premium oven range, dubbed the LG Studio, had been picked as the 2015 Product of the Year in the kitchen and bath category by leading U.S. monthly magazine Architectural Record. (LGE)

　The number of subscribers for Facebook-owned social-networking service Instagram in Korea grew at the fastest pace in the world this year, according to Facebook Korea on Monday. 　Benjamin Joe, the country manager of Facebook Korea, announced this during a press meeting at the firm’s head office in Seoul. 　Although he refused to reveal the exact number of users here, he said the entire number of users worldwide crossed 400 million and is on the rise. Facebook Korea country manager Benjamin Joe s

South Korea’s big three telecom carriers ― SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus ― are expected to see an unprecedented drop in their combined revenue this year amid rapid market saturation. According to market analyst FnGuide, their combined revenue is set to fall to 49.6 trillion won ($42 billion) this year, about 4 percent down from last year’s 51.5 trillion won.  KT would see the largest drop to 21.8 trillion won from 23.4 trillion won, while SK Telecom expects a fall to 17.1 trillion won from 17.8 tr

LG’S UNESCO CAMPAIGN -- Participants of the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference COP21 watch LG Electronics’ organic light-emitting display TV featuring royal penguins on Macquarie Island, Australia. The South Korean tech giant ran a campaign with UNESCO to raise awareness of natural assets and endangered species at the conference held from Nov. 30 to Friday.(LGE)

Samsung Electronics said Friday it will hold a global strategy conference with its top executives from regional branches overseas and business unit heads in Korea next week under the theme of “businesses in a low-growth era.” The company’s vice chairman Lee Jae-yong and three chief executives ― Kwon Oh-hyun, Yoon Boo-keun and Shin Jong-kyun ― will join the conference, which is regularly held twice a year.Attention is being paid to whether the top Samsung executives in the conference would discus

The Seoul Central District Court on Friday acquitted LG Electronics’ home appliance and air solutions CEO Jo Seong-jin and his two aides on charges of wrecking washers of rival company Samsung Electronics, citing a lack of evidence.Samsung filed lawsuits earlier this year against Jo and a top executive for damaging its washing machines at the SATURN Berlin Europa-Center and SATURN Berlin Steglitz in Germany during the IFA trade show in September last year. Another public relations executive was

LG CNS president and CEO Kim Young-sub stressed pragmatic approach at work for better communication and efficiency in his inauguration message to employees Thursday. Kim, former senior vice president at LG Uplus, took office as new CEO of LG CNS, the IT solutions unit, last month. Prior to working at LG Uplus, he had served diverse positions at LG CNS, including chief financial officer, for 11 years. “It is great to come back,” he said. “I also feel heavy responsibility about my new task.” He as

SKT OPENS LAB FOR VR -- SK Telecom launched a research and development center Thursday for virtual reality technology called the OpenNFV Lab together with network equipment firm Hewlett Packard Enterprise in Bundang, Gyeonggi Province. In the photo, Park Jin-hyo (fifth from left), head of SKT’s network technology research and development center, poses with officials from both firms at the opening ceremony of the lab.(SKT)