S. Korea lags in cross-border tech mergers

SEOUL, June 4 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the ICT sector accounted for 15.7 percent of all such M&As, falling behind other major technology-driven countries, a report from the Institute for International Trade showed Monday.

According to the report, 16.2 percent of all M&As around the globe last year were so-called tech M&As, the highest proportion in 10 years.

In South Korea, the number of tech M&As jumped 72.8 percent from 114 in 2013 to 197 last year, but a majority of them were between domestic entities. Only 15.7 percent of them were with foreign companies, far behind 822 cases in the United States (31.8 percent) and 639 cases in the European Union (45.4 percent).

While China had fewer tech M&As, the proportion of cross-border mergers was higher than South Korea with 21.3 percent, the report showed.

The rate of increase for all cross-border M&As was 24 percent for South Korea, compared to 32.2 percent for the U.S., 40.1 percent for the EU and 110 percent for China.

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