The Korean LG conglomerate may have agreed in principal to hand over 100% of its stake in LG Semicon Co to its rival, Hyundai Electronics Inc (CI No 3,570), but the arguing over price and staffing issues is far from over. The latest reports suggest that a final agreement between the two memory chip makers may now not be reached in time to meet the government-set deadline of the end of the month. While the two companies continue to haggle over the purchase price of LG Semicon, the main issue appears to be staffing. On Tuesday, Hyundai issued a statement refusing to guarantee jobs for LG Semicon workers. Only last week, Hyundai cut 30% of the staff acquired last fall from its acquisition of Kia Motors, despite promises at the time that it would re-employ all staff. Meanwhile, one of the other big deal merger negotiations, between the auto-electronics businesses of Samsung and the Daewoo Group, has also stalled due to similar reasons, the Korea Herald reported. LG owns 71% of LG Semicon, with the rest owned by minority shareholders. For details, see related story below.
