LG Has No Plans to Buy Motorola Unit

BARCELONA -(Dow Jones)- Korean handset maker LG Electronics has no plans to buy Motorola's handset business, Skott Ahn, LG Electronics Chief Executive for mobile said Monday.

LG Electronics, the world's fifth-largest mobile phone maker by sales, also played down the likelihood of introducing a low-cost handset worth less than $25 in the immediate future, but still plans to expand into emerging markets.

Despite economic concerns, the company is comfortable it will ship more than 100 million phones this year.

"I think we have already considered the economic situation and are quite confident that we will still achieve this momentum," said Ahn, speaking at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

LG Electronics, which launched a number of touch-screen handsets Monday, said despite Motorola signaling it may potentially sell its handset business, LG had no plans to bid for the unit to increase its market share.

"We have never looked to buy Motorola," said Ahn.

The divisional chief executive also predicted more than half of new phones will have touch-screens, similar to Apple's iPhone, within the next couple of years.

-By Daniel Thomas, Dow Jones Newswires; 44-20-7842-9264; dan.thomas@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

Posted to the site on 11th February 2008