आईसीटी समाचार
Samsung Electronics announced today that it will merge its mobile and consumer electronics businesses, as well as appoint new co-CEOs, in its most significant reorganization since 2017, in order to streamline its structure and focus on boosting its logic chip business. Following Vice Chairman Jay Y. Lee's bribery conviction in August, the broad move is the latest evidence of centralized upheaval at the world's largest memory chip and smartphone maker.
Han Jong-hee, the leader of the visual display company, has been appointed to vice chairman and co-CEO, and will oversee the newly amalgamated division, which includes mobile and consumer electronics, as well as the TV business. Han rose through the ranks of Samsung's visual display division despite having no prior expertise with mobile. Samsung Electro-Mechanics CEO Kyung Kye-hyun has been chosen co-CEO of Samsung Electronics and will manage the chip and component division. The newly amalgamated companies are of varying sizes.
In the July-September quarter, the mobile industry produced KRW 3.36 trillion in operating profit, compared to KRW 760 billion for consumer electronics. Chung Hyun-ho, the leader of a "task force" that observers say is a core coordinating body for decision-making in Samsung Electronics and affiliate firms, was named vice chairman, among other high-profile appointments. "It's possible that funds will be executed or decisions made more quickly," said Kim Sun-woo, an analyst at Meritz Securities. Samsung Electronics last appointed new CEOs in late 2017.
Samsung Group aims to invest KRW 240 trillion on semiconductors, artificial intelligence, robots, and biopharmaceuticals over the next three years. Samsung Electronics, the company's flagship, plans to invest $150 billion in logic chip companies, including foundries, to overtake TSMC as the leader in semiconductor contract manufacturing by 2030. After months of consideration, Samsung picked Taylor, Texas as the location for a proposed $17 billion US chip facility late last month, coinciding with Lee's first business trip to the US in five years.
