Korea Telecom Buys Majority Stake in Country’s Biggest Movie Studio; Talks With Disney

A harbinger of things to come in rest of the world: KT Corp., Korea’s largest fixed-line telephone and high-speed Internet operator, announced yesterday that it has acquired 51 percent of Sidus FNH, the country’s biggest filmmaker, valued at 28 billion won. And the reasoning? “Contents, handsets and networks will be converged, putting the focus on customers,” Nam Joong-soo, KT’s newly appointed CEO. The company will use the content for mobile phones and broadband.
Other than the movie industry, KT’s business scope will be gradually expanded into other areas such as games, music, and e-learning.
SK Telecom Co., the country’s largest mobile operator, is also going the same path: invested 14.4 billion won into IHQ, Korea’s largest entertainment company, last February. It also took over YBM Seoul, Korea’s largest music record company, last May. It is also considering a takeover of YTN Star, an affiliate of the broadcaster YTN.
Reuters: KT has said it was also in talks with Walt Disney Co. on a possible content deal.

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