Disposal of Pantech
Pantech, which has anxiously searched for a purchaser, is currently under negotiation for disposal with many foreign companies.
However, there are concerns over technology leakage once again, since most prospective buyers are foreign companies.
According to the industry and a supervising company of Pantech’s disposal on Jan. 4, the company has continuously searched for a potential buyer after it failed to sell its company publicly in November last year. As a result, the company is currently negotiating a sell-off deal with many prospective buyers.
An official from the industry said, “When the company put up for sale last year, there was no company negotiating at all. However, Pantech is currently in negotiations with some companies. Compared with the past situation, the company took a major step forward.”
Currently, many domestic and foreign companies are showing interest in taking over Pantech, but foreign companies are being more aggressive. In particular, foreign companies put more value on intangible assets, including Pantech’s brand and patents, rather than its tangible assets, including equipment facilities and labor force.
Pantech holds a total of 14,573 patents including 4,985 patents registered at home and other countries. Pantech’s most typical patents are technologies of V Protection (a smartphone anti-theft system), metal antennas, secret functions based on fingerprint verification, and mobile payment services based on fingerprint verification.
Therefore, Chinese smartphone manufactures, which are growing rapidly in the market but lack patents, are interested in Pantech’s. As Chinese smartphone makers recently started entering into the global market, patent litigations are becoming a bigger problem for them. If Chinese companies take Pantech over, the manufacturing capabilities, patents, and R&D manpower of that company will be leaked to China.
An official in the industry said, “When Pantech is sold to a foreign company, the outflow of patent technologies could even lead to the decline in the market share of Samsung and LG. As Pantech has invested 3 trillion won [US$2.7 billion] in R&D only so far, the company holds a considerable amount of patents. Therefore, its technology outflow will cause serious damage to the national economy.”
Currently, Pantech is presenting terms flexibly, to the level of not selling its tangible and intangible assets separately. The company has postponed the public notice of sale until the end of January. If Pantech fails to find a new owner by the end of this month, the company could be liquidated in the worst case.