Korea Thrunet Acquires Equity Ownership of Eight System Operators
SEOUL, South Korea and NEW YORK, Jan. 5 /PRNewswire/ --
Korea Thrunet Co., Ltd. (Nasdaq: KOREA - news) today announced that it acquired equity ownership in eight regional cable system operators in Korea with the ownership ratio ranging from 9.2% to 100%. The total investment was KRW 58.3 billion or approximately US$50.6 million. Through this investment, Korea Thrunet gained majority control or over 50% ownership of 6 out of 77 system operators nationwide.
The Korean government divides the whole nation into 77 areas and assigns one system operator to each area, granting an exclusive license to render cable TV broadcasting services in each region.
Currently, Korea Thrunet and system operators cooperate in their regional co-marketing, customer maintenance, installation and co-location services. The Company believes that the direct equity ownership in system operators would help achieve the following objectives:
1) further enhance the quality of its services,
2) expand its service coverage, and
3) secure provision of more reliable network for broadband Internet
service.
Out of eight system operators in which Korea Thrunet acquired equity ownership, the Company already has a Business Cooperation Agreement with five operators to provide broadband Internet service. The Company signed with the remaining three operators a Business Cooperation Agreement, bringing total number of such partnerships to 36. The eight regional areas have 1,572,380 homes with 649,486 home passed and 56,616 cable TV subscribers. The term ``home passed' refers to the number of homes that potentially can be served by a cable system. Two out of eight system operators in which Korea Thrunet acquired equity ownership are outside of the areas serviced by cable network of Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO). Korea Thrunet plans to build its own network in these two regions.
About Company
Korea Thrunet Co., Ltd. is the leading provider of high-speed Internet services in Korea, with 112,995 end users as of November 30, 1999. Thrunet service features ``always-on' Internet access at speeds up to 100 times faster than traditional dial-up Internet access, with compelling multimedia content ranging from on-demand music videos and Internet telephony to multimedia bulletin board and multimedia chatting services. Korea Thrunet also provides facilities-based data communications services to more than 150 corporate customers in Korea, including several major telecommunications carriers such as SK Telecom Co. Ltd. and Shinsegi Telecomm Inc. Founded in July, 1996, Korea Thrunet's principal offices are located at 1338-5, Seocho-2 dong, Seocho-ku, Seoul, Korea 137-072.
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