LG Electronics Inc has shown some interest in the PowerPC in the past, and is still a putative Mac OS licensee, but it is now getting a whole lot closer to IBM Corp – or at least its IBM Korea subsidiary. The two are to set up a joint venture, LG-IBM PC Co, to make and sell personal computers. The new company will be capitalized at $30m and IBM Korea will hold a 51% stake, the Maeil Business Newspaper reporetd. It will combine the existing personal computer division of LG, and the desktop and notebook personal computer divisions of IBM Korea, and will will assemble machines at LG Electronics’s plant in Pyongtaek, southwest of Seoul, selling products overseas as well as in Korea. It ultimately plans to make IBM machines on its own lines. IBM Korea currently sells imported machines, but sales are said to have been sluggish, partly because of the high prices for the machines. Samsung Electronics Co – controlling AST Research Inc, currently dominates personal computer sales in South Korea with a 30% market share followed by Trigem Computer Corp with 15%, according to Hanuri Salomon.
