SK Telecom on Tuesday received regulatory approval to acquire Hynix Semiconductor Inc., which the nation’s No. 1 mobile carrier hopes to develop into its next growth engine.
The Fair Trade Commission approved SK’s purchase of a controlling stake in the nation’s second-largest provider of memory chips on Tuesday, saying, “No impact is expected on the related market competition.”
Even though the two companies are leading players in each market, the antitrust regulator saw no problems with the acquisition as they have different technologies, distribution channels and key clients.
SK Telecom is a market leader in the mobile industry with a 54.5 percent market share, while Hynix holds 22 percent, the largest after Samsung Electronics with 37.9 percent.
The FTC said it would be difficult for them to share their dominant market shares in each industry or to exclude rival companies from competition.
“The review took 35 days. Aimed at reducing uncertainties and burdens for companies, we followed our principle that an approval process is completed promptly when there’s no antitrust concern,” said an FTC official.
SK Telecom welcomed the approval from the FTC and vowed to complete the remaining acquisition process. The final acquisition is expected to be made as early as February, industry sources said.
On Dec. 14, SK Telecom bought a 21-percent controlling stake in Hynix Semiconductor for 3.4 billion won ($3 billion) in its biggest-ever acquisition.
By Lee Ji-yoon (
jylee@heraldcorp.com)
