Samsung Elec shifts CEO to global strategy role - Reuters India

Samsung Elec shifts CEO to global strategy role - Reuters India

By Miyoung Kim

SEOUL | Thu Jun 7, 2012 3:12pm IST

SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co(005930.KS), Asia's $163 billion technology powerhouse, is shifting CEO Choi Gee-sung to a new role as head of Samsung Group's corporate strategy as it battles Apple Inc(AAPL.O) for supremacy in smartphones and leads the charge to new chip technology.

Choi, 61, has been with Samsung for more than three decades and has worked in all the group's main business divisions, from semiconductors and display to home appliances and telecoms, before taking over as chief executive in 2010.

Crucially, he is seen as chief mentor to Jay Y. Lee, son of Samsung Electronics' chairman Lee Kun-hee and the group's heir apparent. Jay Y. Lee stays as chief operating officer.

"Choi is the best candidate who can chart Samsung through the global economic crisis and ever-intensifying competition," Samsung said in a statement, citing an unnamed executive. "Under Choi, Samsung plans to pursue innovative changes."

The South Korean group named Kwon Oh-hyun as its new CEO. Currently head of Samsung's components business, which oversees chips and display, Kwon cemented Samsung's position in memory chips, where it has almost 50 percent global market share, and expanded into non-memory, or logic chips, which now account for 40 percent of Samsung's overall semiconductor revenue.

GRAPHIC: Samsung ownership r.reuters.com/xyt47s

GRAPHIC: Samsung earnings: r.reuters.com/sem87s

Under Kwon, Samsung became the sole supplier of the mobile processors that power Apple's iPhone and iPad - rival products to Samsung's own Galaxy and Note. The 59-year-old former engineer, who studied electrical engineering at Seoul National University and Stanford, has also led a restructuring of Samsung's LCD flat-screen business.

Samsung said there would be no operational impact from the reshuffle, with Kwon still overseeing the components business.

PUBLIC FEUD

The announcement comes on the anniversary, 19 years ago, of Lee Kun-hee's 'new management declaration', when he told Samsung executives at a Frankfurt hotel they should change everything except their wives and children to improve the firm's then sub-standard product quality.

Today, Lee Kun-hee is embroiled in a public feud with members of his family that could speed up the transfer of control to his son.

"Jay Y. Lee is in the final stage of being groomed ... and Choi will help in this process, helping him (Jay Y. Lee) look into the group as a whole, not just the electronics unit," said Chung Sun-sup, head of chaebul.com, an online information provider on South Korea's industrial conglomerates, which wield enormous political and economic clout.

The strategic office that Choi will be heading up is the "control tower" of the Samsung Group SAGR.UL, which presides over some 81 companies involved in everything from ships and smartphones to insurance and chemicals.

"There'll be no major changes in overall strategy as Kwon will continue to oversee the components business, while telecoms and consumer electronics are separately run by other executives," said James Song, analyst at KDB Daewoo Securities.

Samsung, which said earlier this month that sales of its range of Galaxy S smartphones had topped 50 million, has moved quickly to overtake Apple in the fast-growth mobile market and has blown away Nokia (NOK1V.HE) and BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM.TO).

LOGIC CHIP INVESTMENT

Samsung earlier on Thursday said it will spend $1.9 billion on a new logic chip line to make processors for mobile devices amid explosive demand for smartphones and tablets. It said the new line will use 300 mm wafers and 20 nanometer and 14 nanometer processing technology.

Demand for system chips used in smartphones and tablets is set to more than double to $59 billion in 2016 from $23 billion last year, according to research firm Gartner.

Ahead of the announcements, shares in Asia's biggest technology firm closed up 5.2 percent in a broad market rally that sent the benchmark KOSPI index up 2.6 percent.

(Additional reporting by Hyunjoo Jin; Writing by Ian Geoghegan; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)

Samsung builds new logic chip line, spends $1.9 billion in doing so - UberGizmo (blog)

Samsung knows that in order to stay on top of the game, they will need to continue improving, which means staying stagnant and content with what they have achieved so far is taboo. Having said that, Samsung has decided to make the decision in spending a cool $1.9 billion in order to construct a new logic chip line so that this particular chip line is able to churn out processors for mobile devices – as part of their business plan to meet growing demand for smartphones and tablets around the world. Right now, Samsung is the one behind application processors for Apple’s iPhone and iPad, and they also churn out their own iPhone and iPad rivals in the form of the Galaxy and Note range of devices. This new line will be able to use 300mm wafers and 20 nanometer and 14 nanometer processing technology. I say, that would mean smaller and smaller processors in due time, and that translates to longer battery life – unless, of course, the battery capacity in the new chassis of upcoming devices has also decreased in order to cater for a shrinking physical form factor.

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Samsung plunges $500k into Linux Foundation - The Register

Samsung plunges $500k into Linux Foundation

P-p-p-picks up a different penguin in Apple struggle

By Anna Leach • Get more from this author

Posted in Developer, 7th June 2012 17:06 GMT

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Samsung has opened a new front in the mobile wars against Apple by upping its investment in Linux and its mobile software. Samsung will plough half a million dollars into the Linux Foundation and get a seat on the not-for-profit's board of directors by becoming a Platinum member of the Foundation, it has been announced.

Linux doesn't state how much its corporate Platinum members donate for the privilege of top-tier membership - but Apple Insider reports that the amount is circa $500,000.

Samsung joins The Linux Foundation's six other corporate platinum members: NEC, IBM, Fujitsu, Intel, Qualcomm and Oracle.

Samsung's interest in operating systems is not a surprise. As the biggest mobile handset maker in the world, and manufacturer of many other devices including tablets, TVs and white goods, the company has a vested interest in the software on its hardware. We imagine Samsung will be particularly interested in the new Linux for mobile operating system Tizen, a potential rival to iOS and Android.

Google's Android OS is based on a Linux kernel, but even so it would seem worth the Korean company's time to investigate alternative flavours.

And it's not just mobile phones that use Linux, software will become an increasingly important part of devices such as TVs as the era of smart gadgets dawns.

In the short term, Samsung have committed to work with The Linux Foundation on streamlining its participation with the kernel community and adopting open source best practices.

Jim Zemlin, executive director at The Linux Foundation said the the partnership would be good for Samsung and good for Linux:

The company’s commitment to Linux and investment in its development firmly plants it in a position to continue its achievements in the mobile, embedded and consumer electronics markets. This is a strategic business decision that will result in advancing Samsung Electronics’ success and accelerating Linux development work.

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