Qualcomm takes a small stake in South Korea’s Pantech

South Korea’s third largest phone maker, Pantech, announced that Qualcomm (NSDQ: QCOM) would become a minority shareholder in Pantech Co. Ltd. and Pantech & Curitel Communications Inc. The move comes as a result of Pantech’s plan to convert portion of its debt into equity.

Qualcomm won’t take an active role in the company management, and will get no more than 15% of Pantech’s common shares. According to Qualcomm Korea’s Dr. Cha Young Koo “this conversion will create a stronger platform on which Pantech can continue to build its prior successes in developing unique and innovative products.”

Pantech sits in the shadow of two other Korean handset makers – LG and Samsung, and in that sense plans to further push handset shipments to Japan and the U.S. We’ll see how that goes…

[Via: Unwired View]