“We are considering that bid…but haven’t decided whether we would we would really bid for it or not,” the official said to Wall Street Journal.
The latest move is seen as SK Telecom’s latest initiative to broaden its business portfolio and tap sources of growth overseas amid the rising popularity of smartphone and table computing devices, the Journal reported.
The South Korea’s leading telecoms operator, which control about 50 percent of the domestic market, has been interested in developing software for mobile phones in recent years, Financial Times said.
Last month, the U.S. company agreed to sell itself to a consortium of bidders for $290 million and said it entered into an asset-purchase agreement with Cobalt Video Holdco, the so-called “stalking horse” bidding group comprised of private-equity and hedge fund, which together own a large chunk of Blockbuster’s secure debt, the Journal added.
However, SK Telecom’s interest in Blockbuster came as a surprise to many investors, given the dimming outlook of the movie rental business.
“We are slightly perplexed because no immediate synergies come to mind and the required restructuring of the company could be very costly,” David Lee, an analyst at CLSA, said in a report.
SK Telecom declined to comment on why it is interested in the deal. But some analysts said that the company appeared attracted to Blockbuster’s digital content distribution business, the Times added.
Blockbuster, which has 2,500 outlets, filed for bankruptcy in September 2010, after it failed to keep pace with new competitors such as Netflix and Coinstar’s Redbox.
(아주경제 송지영 기자)
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com