SK Telecom approves mobility business split-off

SK Telecom’s shareholders on Thursday approved the company’s plan to split off its mobility business.

The new company, T Map Mobility, will inaugurate on December 29.

81.4% of shares with voting rights participated in the shareholders’ meeting. 99.98% of them approved the motion.

SK Telecom CEO Park Jung-ho said transportation cost was second to food and housing for most people and the firm hoped to innovate the mobility ecosystem through the split-off.

Lee Jong-ho, who currently leads the carrier’s mobility business, will likely become the CEO of the newly formed company.

SK Telecom is hoping that T Map Mobility gets a valuation of 4.5 trillion won by 2025.

Park said its T Map navigation app had the most users among competitors in South Korea, which gave it vast amount of data. 13.23 million people used the service in October, the CEO said.

Last month, SK Telecom announced that it will form a joint venture with ride hailing company Uber. 

Uber will put in US$50 million unto T Map Mobility. T Map Mobility and Uber will than form a joint venture together that will offer ride hailing services. This company will also get T Map Taxi service from T Map Mobility.