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South Korea’s SK Telecom is ceasing further investment in its Vietnamese subsidiary due to lower than anticipated profits and subscriber growth. However, the company says that it doesn’t plan to withdraw from its S-Fone partnership with Saigon Post and Telecommunication Corporation (SPT), only that it will wait with the 3G network rollout.
Korea Times newspaper interviewed a high-ranking SK Telecom, who said: “Since 2003, it has been investing over $150 million in Vietnam attracted by higher growth potential in Vietnam’s telecom market. But the investment return wasn’t so good.”
There’s also another angle to the story. Apparently, SK Telecom wants to convert the cooperation with SPT into a formal joint venture, and then sell a stake to South Korea-based private equity fund – Rutter Associates.
According to Mobile World, S-Fone ended last September with around 2.5 million customers, which is about 2.5% of the market.
[Via: CellularNews]
About The Author
Dusan Belic
Dusan has been using smartphones since their introduction and is now following the latest trends in the industry. The "convergence" is what he's most excited about, and writing about it is the next logical thing to do. He thinks that using a smartphone is what everyone who cares about their time should do. In addition to his interests in mobile phones, Dusan also loves to experiment with the latest web and mobile 2.0 services. The idea of accessing and managing your information from any device no matter where you are simply amazes him. Whether it's an online to-do list, note taking service or a video sharing social network, he's there to try it out. He admits though, he's still searching for the ultimate web-based organizational tool, which "sings" perfectly with the mobile PIM application. Dusan used to run SymbianWatch.com which later became part of IntoMobile. He lives in Serbia, South-East Europe, from where he edits the site on a daily basis.
