Yong Jun Yeo, Gounee Yang Global Economic News KT Corp., South Korea’s largest telephone and internet company, announced that it has signed an SPA (sales and purchase agreement) to acquire a 100 percent stake in Epsilon, a global data company of Malaysia’s Kuok Group, for US$145 million. This deal is the largest overseas investment since CEO Koo Hyun-mo took the helm of the South Korean company in March last year. Epsilon has provided global data services and cloud connection services as its main businesses, and has operated Internet Data Centers (IDC) in London, New York, and Singapore. Its main business bases are in Singapore. Through the acquisition, KT is expecting to increase its global data business competitiveness by utilizing data centers and cloud solutions owned by Epsilon at major global bases. In addition, it has also prepared the foundation for expanding the global data business, which is concentrated in Asia, to Europe and the United States. The industry predicts that the global data industry market will reach 100 trillion won (US$88.6 billion) by 2025 from 72 trillion won last year. | 