SK Telecom Declares Transformation into AI Company
SK Telecom plans to transform itself into an artificial intelligence (AI) company.
SK Telecom has declared a transformation into an artificial intelligence (AI) company. In addition, the company will finalize restructuring of its corporate governance to become an intermediate holding company by the end of 2021 in line with its plan to list its subsidiaries.
SK Telecom disclosed the plans in the 37th regular general shareholders’ meeting on March 25.
At the shareholders’ meeting, top executives of SK Telecom’s five major business units, including CEO Park Jung-ho presented the results of the company’s 5G and new ICT businesses and management visions to shareholders.
CEO Park vowed to maximize shareholder value by growing its new ICT portfolio based on the five business units. In particular, he summed up the direction of SK Telecom’s change in 2021 with two goals: transformation into an AI company and the establishment of global level governance.
Park said SK Telecom will provide innovative customer experiences by tapping into AI. The company plans to connect products and services of the entire ICT family, including mobile communications, media, security, and commerce, using AI.
Park officially announced a plan to make SK Telecom an intermediate holding company in October 2018, but no specific plan has been disclosed yet. Although SK Telecom stopped short of including this issue as one of the agenda items for this year’s general shareholders’ meeting, the company is strongly determined to finalize the reorganization within 2021. However, the time of the announcement of the plan was not disclosed.
SK Telecom is planning to gradually list its ICT subsidiaries such as One Store, Wavve, SK Broadband, ADT Caps, 11Street and T-Map Mobility.
SK Telecom will also expand the roles and authority of committees under the board of directors by reorganizing them into four committees for the promotion of independent and transparent board-centered management. SK Telecom has strengthened the independence of the board by separating the CEO and the chairman of the board since 2012 and increased diversity by appointing female outside directors in 2018. Prior to a revision of the Commercial Act in 2012, which requires the formation of a majority of outside directors, the company has taken the lead in advancing the board by maintaining more than 50 percent of board members as outside directors since 2009.
The general shareholders’ meeting approved 18,624.7 billion won as SK Telecom’s sales, 1,349.3 billion won as its operating profit and 1,500.5 trillion won as its net profit based on a consolidated basis in 2020. The amount of cash dividends was set at 10,000 won per share, including 1,000 won in interim dividends paid in August 2020.