Electronics manufacturer Pantech announced it will bring its various mobile-phone operations closer together. The company said its mobile-phone affiliate Pantech Co. Ltd. will merge with its recently acquired SK Teletech Co. business.
“With the completion of this merger, we will have moved one step closer to achieving our overarching goal of the group becoming one of the world’s top five global handset manufacturers,” said Sung-Kyu Lee, president and chief executive officer of Pantech Co. Ltd.
Pantech&Curitel Communications Inc., another part of the Pantech cluster of companies, acquired 60 percent of SK Teletech Co. from South Korean wireless carrier SK Telecom in May.
Pantech&Curitel sells phones under a variety of brands, including its own, in South Korea, China, Russia and elsewhere. It initially began selling phones in the United States in 1998 through PrimeCo Personal Communications L.P., which later became one of the carriers cobbled together to create Verizon Wireless. In 2002, Pantech&Curitel signed a distribution deal with Audiovox to sell handsets in the United States.
Earlier this year, Curitel entered a bid to buy Audiovox Communications Corp., the handset business of consumer electronics company Audiovox Corp. The move would have solidified its position in the U.S. market. However, Curitel lost to wireless technology vendor UTStarcom Inc.
Late last year, Pantech&Curitel announced a deal to sell 10 million Pantech-branded phones in the United States through UTStarcom’s Audiovox business. However, the company has yet to introduce any such phones in the American market.
