Tag: Samsung

I did not realize how little of Samsung Electronics that the Lee family actually owned:

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Two key Samsung companies are merging in a step toward ensuring the son of the group’s ailing chairman inherits control of the theme parks to smartphones conglomerate.

Samsung said Tuesday that its defacto holding company Cheil Industries Inc. will acquire Samsung C&T Corp. by offering 0.35 new Cheil shares for every Samsung C&T share.

The move, to be completed by Sept. 1, requires shareholder approval, which is expected. The combined entity will be named Samsung C&T.

Analysts say the transaction will give Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong a big say in the conglomerate including its crown jewel Samsung Electronics Co.

“Samsung Electronics is at the core of this event,” said Park Ju-gun, president at CEOScore, a private corporate watchdog. “If Lee Jae-yong controls C&T, he can secure control over Samsung Electronics.”

The corporate maneuvering reflects that the Lee family’s influence over Samsung Electronics through a life insurance company was at risk as the South Korean parliament is set to pass a law that restricts finance companies from controlling non-finance companies.

Lee, his father Lee Kun-hee and other family members have a small direct stake in Samsung Electronics but have been able to exert influence through cross shareholdings in affiliated companies, the most significant of which was Samsung Life Insurance. Altogether, they control about 29 percent of Samsung Electronics shares, which is the largest voting bloc.

Lee Kun-hee, 73, who remains chairman at Samsung Electronics, has been hospitalized for more than a year after suffering a heart attack in May, 2014. Lee Jae-yong earlier this month took over his father’s roles in two Samsung charitable foundations.

The Lee family will likely take additional steps to enlarge C&T’s stake Samsung Electronics as a lynchpin of the cross shareholdings, said Park. It currently owns 4.1 percent of the electronics giant.  [Associated Press]

You can read more at the link. 

Samsung's big question: under new leadership, what kind of company does it want to be? http://t.co/NRRcqbZCuF pic.twitter.com/VVnCeJbu0B

— Alastair Gale (@AlastairGale) May 12, 2015

The 20 biggest, most powerful and most valuable companies in the world: http://t.co/eTDPmHxAqC pic.twitter.com/r1R6uQD7dX

— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) May 6, 2015

Applicants walk out of an exam venue after taking the Samsung Aptitude Test (SSAT) on April 12, 2015, at Dankook University High School in Seoul. Samsung’s recruitment has become a seasonal phenomenon among recent university graduates in South Korea, as some 100,000 applicants try out every semester to be employed at the world’s top smartphone maker and its affiliates. (Yonhap)

Samsung Pay coming to US and South Korea this summer, compatible w/ 30mill … http://t.co/TIfKpI5Tap

— South Korea Daily (@SouthKoreaDaily) March 1, 2015

Here is the latest in the continuing smartphone wars:

South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics Co. is gearing up to unveiled its all new flagship smartphone at this year’s Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, hoping to put the company back in the ring with arch-rival Apple Inc., corporate sources said Sunday.

The flagship, widely expected to be called the Galaxy 6, aims to lay the foundation for Samsung to recapture the No. 1 smartphone manufacturer title that it lost late last year following lackluster sales of its Galaxy S5 and strong sales of Apple’s first large-screen iPhone 6.

The launch is expected to take place at 2:30 a.m. on Monday (Korea time) at a dedicated “Unpacked” event.

Samsung is also hoping that the new smartphone may help it outpace Chinese upstarts, such as Xiaomi Tech and Huawei Technologies Co, which have made strides, particularly in the world’s second-largest economy.

The combination of Apple’s super popular iPhone and challenges by Xiaomi and Huawei caused Samsung to suffer an “earnings shock” last year.

Company sources said that the new Galaxy, which was called “Project Zero” in its development stage, emphasizes a completely new form factor with importance placed on the materials used to make the phone.

In the past, Samsung’s flagships have taken a beating for using “flimsy” plastic, but the company in more recent months has been churning out devices with metal frames, such as the Galaxy Note 4 and Galaxy Alpha, or with all aluminum uni-body designs in the cases of the A3, A5 and A7.

Besides the build quality, Samsung said through official teasers that the new phone will have better internals in the form of a more powerful processor, memory capacity, camera and streamlined software, which will enhance the overall performance and user experience.

The new Galaxy, which could well come in the conventional flat and dual-curbed screen “Edge” variants, will have a Samsung Pay system pre-installed. The system based on LooPay technology allows users to use the phone like a credit card. Unlike Apple’s payment system that requires special terminals, the LooPay arrangement allows it to work with existing credit card readers.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but it is going to be interesting to see if consumers prefer the old credit car technology that Samsung is banking on or the built in Apple Pay technology in the iPhone?

It looks like Samsung is developing their answer to Apple Pay:

South Korea’s tech giant Samsung Electronics Co. said Thursday that it has bought U.S. mobile technology firm LoopPay Inc., a move apparently aimed at making inroads into the mobile payment technology market against its rival Apple Inc.

“Samsung has made efforts to provide safe and convenient mobile payment service,” said Shin Jong-kyun who heads the mobile division at the Seoul-based company. “The acquisition will spur up the company to lead the world mobile commerce market.”

LoopPay has patent rights related to magnetic secure transmission, a payments solution that works with the existing magnetic stripe readers.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Yes they are and they even admit to it:

Part of the Samsung Smarttv EULA: “Please be aware that if your spoken words include personal or other sensitive information, that information will be among the data captured and transmitted to a third party through your use of Voice Recognition.”

This is part of their speech-recognition tech, which uses third parties (whose privacy policies Samsung doesn’t make any representations about) to turn your words into text.  [Boing Boing]

I recommend everyone read more about this over at the Marmot’s Hole.

The Samsung heir apparent has cracked Bloomberg’s Top 200 of the world’s richest people:

Lee Jae-yong, vice chairman of South Korean tech firm Samsung Electronics Co., made the list of the world’s top 200 richest people for the first time as Samsung Group’s heir apparent raked in big fortunes from successful initial public offerings of its two affiliates, the Bloomberg Billionaire Index showed Tuesday.

The 46-year-old Lee’s listed stock value was estimated at US$7.2 billion to rank 183rd worldwide in the latest Bloomberg index, making him the second-wealthiest person in South Korea after his father, Lee Kun-hee.

The senior Lee, who is recuperating from a heart attack he suffered in May, ranked No. 77, with his listed assets worth $13.1 billion as of early Tuesday, the index showed.

Formerly among the world’s 400 richest people in September, the junior Lee has made a big leap forward as the nation’s most powerful conglomerate listed two of its affiliates — Samsung SDS Co. and Cheil Industries Inc. — in just over a month, in a move seen as preparing for management succession. [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

#Samsung phones cleared for #US #government use http://t.co/9kTuG77fYE #technology #GALAXYNote4 #SouthKorea

— Asian Correspondent (@AsCorrespondent) October 21, 2014