SK Telecom to acquire additional 24.76% stake in SK Broadband

SK Telecom, one of Korea’s major mobile carriers, will acquire an additional 24.76 percent stake in its subsidiary SK Broadband, aiming to strengthen its presence in data centers and submarine cable investments to advance its AI capabilities.

Logo of SK Telecom [SK TELECOM]

SK Telecom, one of Korea’s major mobile carriers, will acquire an additional 24.76 percent stake in its subsidiary SK Broadband, aiming to strengthen its presence in data centers and submarine cable investments to advance its AI capabilities.

The telecom company said on Wednesday that it signed a stock purchase agreement to acquire the entire combined stake currently held by Taekwang Group and Mirae Asset Financial Group, which respectively owns 16.75 and 8.01 percent of the internet service provider.

SKT will purchase the stake at the price of 11,511 won ($8.22) per share, totaling 1.15 trillion won, by May 2025.

With the acquisition, SKT will secure a 99.1 percent stake in SK Broadband.

“This stock purchase agreement will improve the operational efficiency of SK Broadband, strengthening our competitive edge across all business sectors, including fixed and mobile communications, broadcasting, enterprise services, data centers and submarine cables,” a SKT spokesperson said in a statement.

SK Telecom has been investing heavily in the burgeoning AI sector, outlining a road map to advance business models for AI-powered services for enterprises and consumers and transit its telco operations to AI.

This year, the company invested $20 million in U.S. GPU cloud provider Lambda, $10 million in AI search engine Perplexity and $200 million in enterprise technology company Smart Global Holdings.

BY LEE JAE-LIM [lee.jaelim@joongang.co.kr]