SK Telecom, the nation’s largest mobile carrier, is to incubate start-ups in Silicon Valley in areas such as the Internet of Things, big data, cloud service and health care. Its North American arm SK Telecom Americas said Tuesday it set up the incubating center Innopartners, which can accommodate more than 11 companies in Sunnyvale. Two companies ― a transmission technology developer eTopus and...

More than 1 million subscribers switched telecom operators to get new smartphones during each of the last two months, according to an industry source. This came as local telecom operators have continued their cutthroat battle to attract new subscribers with more subsidies. During the period, the daily shift reached 41,000, nearly double the 24,000 mark designated by the industry regulator to ind...

Small- and mid-sized local securities firms are becoming the targets of merger and acquisition deals as the stock brokerage industry has posted a sagging business performance over the past few years. According to the Financial Supervisory Service, 62 local brokerage houses reported a net loss of 109.8 billion won ($99 million) for the 2013 fiscal year, marking the first yearly deficit in 11 year...

Naver Corp., the nation’s largest search portal, faces an unexpected bump in its global mobile messaging business. Facebook’s recent acquisition of fast-growing messaging start-up WhatsApp dealt a blow to the stock value of Naver. Shares of the Internet heavyweight rebounded 2 percent on Friday, following an 8 percent plunge on Thursday. Regarding the outlook for Naver Corp.’s overseas mobile me...

President Park Geun-hye ordered broadcasting regulators Monday to ensure that the industry won’t fall into the hands of a handful of conglomerates, saying diversity and fairness are key to revitalizing the broadcasting sector. Park issued the instruction during a joint policy briefing by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning and the Korea Communications Commission. She said the broad...

South Korean stocks closed higher on Monday thanks to net buying by foreign investors and institutions, who kept alive last week’s modest growth momentum. The South Korean won gained against the U.S. dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index, starting the day in positive territory, gave up some of its gains to end at 1,946.36, up 0.31 percent, or 6.08 points, from Friday’s close. T...