Third largest korean hardware manufacturer, Pantech is now up for sale after the company filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection in August. All thanks but no thanks to fierce competition from Samsung and LG Electronics, due to steeply declining sales the company posed losses for six successive financial quarters.
The company and its creditors presented its plan of sale procedure to the Seoul Central District Court and bidders (potential) have until October 7 (3:00pm to be precise) to submit their offers for the ailing company. Speculation reveal Korea’s SK Telecom, LG Electronics, Samsung and Hyundai Motor Group as those who have shown interest in buying the company; with SK Telecom believed to be front-runners.
Interest in buying the company is also not short from foreign investors with the likes of Huawei, Lenovo, Micromax and Xiaomi tipped to be considering offers to be able to penetrate into the almost un-enter able Korean handset market.
However sales to a foreign investor is unlikely as about 70% of the population in South Korea already own a mobile phone; but sales to a local investor would make more sense as it would expand the company’s operation in the country.
In what might be the last device from the company, TGF posted details of an unannounced Pantech Pop Up Note in August. The Pantech Pop Up Note features a 5.5-inch Full HD display, powered by a Quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor clocked at 2.3GHz, 2GB of RAM, 16GB internal storage, a microSD card slot, 4G LTE, 13MP rear camera, 2.1MP front camera, fingerprint sensor and a stylus pen.
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