SK hynix said Friday it has signed a deal to acquire part of U.S. data storage firm Violin Memory to enhance its presence in the fast-growing market for flash memory devices. Shares of the world’s No. 2 memory chipmaker rose to a 52-week high of 44,150 won on expectations that the deal would sharpen its edge in high-value-added semiconductors. Violin said SK hynix has agreed to pay about $23 mi...

Samsung announced a new digital health vision with the introduction of Simband, a health-tracking wristband, and its big data cloud platform SAMI, at the company’s digital health event in San Francisco. “We can do more in the health care sector, by combining the advancement of what we have seen in mobile technology with hardware, sensors, algorithms, behavioral science, big data and the cloud,” ...

LG Electronics has rolled out its new feature-rich G3, which is focused on the more frequently used user interfaces such as the camera and keyboard in an attempt to give users what they most want out of a smartphone. Further, despite the growing line of health-related functions by other device makers, the company declared it has done away with the heart rate sensor. The G3 is also not waterproof...

CSLi, South Korea’s multilingual translation engine, announced Tuesday that it has acquired SYSTRAN, a France-based machine translation tech company. Rechristening itself SYSTRAN International, the tech firm said the acquisition was part of efforts to boost its competitive edge over IT giants such as Google and Microsoft. “We took over the French firm in a bid to beat the global No. 1 Google’s ...

Rumors are rising that Kakao, the nation’s top mobile messenger provider, and Daum Communications, the nation’s second-largest Internet portal company, are again seeking a tie-up. According to sources in the investment banking industry, the boards of the two tech giants met last Friday to discuss a possible merger through a stock swap. “The deal could offer a new business opportunity to the bot...

Samsung Electronics is considering joining Qualcomm’s AllJoyn project, but there is some debate over the possibility as Samsung is currently developing its own Internet of Things platform, industry watchers said Wednesday. AllJoyn is an open-source platform that allows all smart devices ― regardless of brand ― to recognize each other and share information. Simply put, Samsung and LG’s smart home...

Concentrix, a global business process outsourcing company, plans to double its sales and staff in South Korea over the next three years as local companies’ demand for administrative processing will increase as they expand globally. “We are very excited to tap into the Korean market, where a number of global industry players are located,” said Christopher Caldwell, president of Concentrix, in a r...

Samsung Electronics made an official apology to leukemia patients and their families for the first time since the issue emerged in 2007. “Samsung has neglected pains and difficulties of the victims and their families. We offer our sincere apologies to them for not resolving the problem earlier,” said Samsung Electronics CEO Kwon Oh- hyun, holding an extraordinary news conference at its Seoul off...

삼성그룹 이건희 회장이 11일 새벽 삼성서울병원에서 급성 심근경색으로 스텐트(stent) 삽입 시술을 받은 것으로 알려진 가운데 지난 4월 미국과 일본 출장을 마치고 귀국한 후에도 간단한 심장 수술을 받은 것으로 밝혀졌다. 익명을 요구한 한 삼성 관계자는 이건희 회장이 4월 17일 귀국 후 삼성서울병원에서 간단한 심장 수술을 받은 바 있다고 코리아헤럴드에 밝혔다. 그는 정확한 수술 날짜 관련해서는 함구했다. 최근 심장 수술과 오늘 새벽 스탠트 시술은 국내 최대 기업을 이끌고 있는 이건희 회장의 건강 문제가 심각하다는 우려를 재점화시키고 있다. 삼성 미래전략실은 이에 대해 이건희 회장이 귀국 후 심장관련 수술을 받은 적이 없다며 부인했다. 삼성 측에 따르면 이 회장은 10일 밤 갑작스런 호흡곤란으로 서...

The global smart car market is expected to grow 7 percent each year by 2018, around double the automotive market growth of 3.5 percent during the same period, according to a recent report published by KDB Research Institute. The market hit around 230 trillion won ($224 billion) in 2013. Smart cars are connected vehicles which provide more safety and convenience with electronics and communicatio...

Chinese smartphone companies have been growing rapidly in recent years, becoming a threat to Korean handset makers such as Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics. Chinese companies accounted for more than 20 percent of the global smartphone market last year, a sharp jump from 8 percent in 2010, according to global research firm Strategy Analytics. “Chinese companies’ patterns of growth have bee...