Shares of South Korea's LG Electronics Inc surged in morning trade on Wednesday, rising as much as 14.5 per cent at one point on market speculation that Google Inc will acquire a stake in the consumer electronics maker. LG Electronics spokesman Ken Hong said the market talk was "complete speculation" and that the company does not comment on rumours.
The company's shares were trading 6 per cent higher as of 0254 GMT, compared with a 1 per cent decline for the broader market
India impact
If at all Google does acquire a stake in LG Electronics, it could open up a plethora of partnership possibilities for the two majors globally as well as in India. At the international level, Google and LG work closely in the television space. The two struck a deal recently to jointly promote LG's OLED TV range. Globally, as well in the domestic market, LG's phones are powered by Google's Android operating system (OS) in the absence of a proprietary OS by the phone-maker. Rival Samsung, for the record, has its own OS called Tizen, though its dependence on Android is also high. Besides, LG also manufactures the popular Google's Nexus 5 phone, as well as its predecessor, the Nexus 4. A possible stake buy in LG therefore could take these on-going partnerships to a new level, analysts tracking the market said.
