NEW YORK (AFP) ― Russian-American billionaire Len Blavatnik’s Access Industries won a bidding war on Friday for Warner Music Group, buying the storied music company for $3.3 billion in an all-cash transaction. The sale of Warner Music, whose artists range from current stars such as Eric Clapton and Kid Rock to legends such as Frank Sinatra and Ray Charles, comes at a challenging time for the mus...

Korean telecom giant decides to sell its stake in Russian affiliate NTC for $346m KT Corp. said Friday that it posted 5.3 trillion won ($4.88 billion) in sales and 726.3 billion won in operating profit for this first quarter, up 6.1 percent and 61.7 percent, respectively, from a year earlier. In its quarterly report, the country’s biggest fixed-line service operator said the solid performance w...

KT Corp., South Korea's largest telecom company, said Friday that its first-quarter earnings surged 84.7 percent from one year ago. Net profit reached 555.2 billion won (US$513.6 million) in the January-March period, compared with 300.6 billion won a year earlier, it said in a regulatory filing. Sales rose 6.1 percent from one year ago to 5.3 trillion won in the quarter and operating profit inc...

By Choi He-suk Local economics organizations praised the National Assembly ratification of the Korea-EU Free Trade Agreement on Wednesday. The EU is Korea’s second largest export destination, and European goods account for the fourth largest proportion of Korea’s imports. As such, the pact is projected to have significant benefits for Korea’s economy with some projecting that it will have a la...

A global smartphone boom is proving to be a significant boon for business for CrucialTec, a Korean maker of optical trackpads widely used in handsets for navigating menus. Optical trackpads detect the movement of the finger, helping mobile users more easily scroll through the information they need on their phones. CrucialTec is known as the pioneer in the technology, as its feats include develo...

Competitive parts suppliers to receive funding for up to three years South Korea is poised to offer funding for research and development at a total of 50 prospective small-sized local parts and materials makers in order to bolster the nation’s industrial competitiveness, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said Thursday. The ministry will provide selected firms that are posting average annual sal...

Yet another industrial giant has decided to join the growing number of companies to create a smoke-free working environment. On Wednesday, SK Group, a local energy and telecom giant, said it informed workers that it is to completely ban smoking from its headquarters starting next week. The ban will be effective from Monday in all 35 stories of the SK building in downtown Seoul, which serves as ...