Sourced from the Wikipedia 'Samsung' Page...Because I live dangerously...
The Samsung Group (Korean: 삼성그룹 / Samseong Geurup) is a multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. The Samsung Group comprises numerous international affiliated businesses, most of them united under the Samsung brand including Samsung Electronics, the world's largest technology company by sales; Samsung Heavy Industries, the world's second largest shipbuilder; Samsung Engineering was ranked 35th, Samsung C&T 72nd in a 2009 ranking of 225 global construction firms compiled by the Engineering News-Record, a U.S. construction journal. Samsung Life Insurance was ranked 14th in a 2009 ranking of Fortune Global 500 Industries. Samsung Everland, South Korea's first theme park opened in 1976 as Yongin Farmland. In 2002 it was the fifth most popular theme park in the world, beating out Epcot, Disney MGM and Disney's Animal Kingdom. Cheil Worldwide operates as a subsidiary of Samsung Group and was ranked #19 among the "World's Top 50 Agency Companies" by revenue in 2010. Shilla Hotel, a subsidiary of the Samsung Group, has been ranked #58 among the "2009 World's Best Top 100 Hotels" in the annual reader survey conducted by the prestigious international business magazine, Institutional Investor.
The Best Overall Generalist Sales Force survey ranks 22 firms that participated in Institutional Investor’s 2007 All-Asia Research Team survey. Samsung Securities (Investment Bank) was ranked #14 among the "2007 All-Asia Best Overall Generalist Sales Force Rankings" by revenue in 2007.
Gartner’s “Market Share Analysis: Top 10 Consulting Providers’ Revenue, Growth and Market Share, Worldwide and Regional 2009” is intended as a tool for service providers. Samsung SDS was second in Asia Pacific with IBM topping the list, and Accenture third.
Samsung Group accounts for about a fifth of South Korea's total exports. In many domestic industries, Samsung Group is the sole monopoly dominating a single market, its revenue as large as some countries' total GDP. In 2006, Samsung Group would have been the 35th largest economy in the world if ranked, larger than that of Argentina. The company has a powerful influence on the country's economic development, politics, media and culture, being a major driving force behind the Miracle on the Han River. Many businesses today use Samsung's international success as a role model. Samsung bought Media Group in 2010.
History
In 1938, Lee Byung-chull (1910–1987) of a large landowning family in the Uiryeong county came to the nearby Daegu city and founded Samsung Sanghoe (삼성상회), a small trading company with forty employees located in Su-dong (now Ingyo-dong). It dealt in groceries produced in and around the city and produced noodles itself. The company prospered and Lee moved its head office to Seoul in 1947. When the Korean War broke out, however, he was forced to leave Seoul and started a sugar refinery in Busan as a name of Cheil Jedang. After the war, in 1954, Lee founded Cheil Mojik and built the plant in Chimsan-dong, Daegu. It was the largest woolen mill ever in the country and the company took on an aspect of a major company.
Samsung diversified into many areas and Lee sought to establish Samsung as an industry leader in a wide range of enterprises, moving into businesses such as insurance, securities, and retail. Lee placed great importance on industrialization, and focused his economic development strategy on a handful of large domestic conglomerates, protecting them from competition and assisting them financially. He later banned several foreign companies from selling consumer electronics in South Korea in order to protect Samsung from foreign competition.
In the late 1960s, Samsung Group entered into the electronics industry. It formed several electronics-related divisions, such as Samsung Electronics Devices Co., Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co., Samsung Corning Co., and Samsung Semiconductor & Telecommunications Co., and made the facility in Suwon. Its first product was a black-and-white television set. In 1980, the company acquired Hanguk Jeonja Tongsin in Gumi, and started to build telecommunication devices. Its early products were switchboards. The facility were developed into the telephone and fax manufacturing systems and became the centre of Samsung's mobile phone manufacturing. They have produced over 800 million mobile phones to date. The company grouped them together under Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. in the 1980s.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Samsung Electronics invested heavily in research and development, investments that were pivotal in pushing the company to the forefront of the global electronics industry. In 1982, it built a television assembly plant in Portugal; in 1984, a plant in New York; in 1985, a plant in Tokyo; in 1987, a facility in England; and another facility in Austin in 1996. In total, Samsung has invested about $5.6 billion in the Austin location – by far the largest foreign investment in Texas and one of the largest single foreign investments in the United States. The new investment will bring the total Samsung investment in Austin to more than $9 billion.
Samsung started to rise as an international corporation in the 1990s. Samsung's construction branch was awarded a contract to build one of the two Petronas Towers in Malaysia, Taipei 101 in Taiwan and the Burj Khalifa in United Arab Emirates. In 1993, Lee Kun-hee sold off ten of Samsung Group's subsidiaries, downsized the company, and merged other operations to concentrate on three industries: electronics, engineering, and chemicals. In 1996, the Samsung Group reacquired the Sungkyunkwan University foundation.
Compared to other major Korean companies, Samsung survived the 1997 Asian financial crisis relatively unharmed. However, Samsung Motor was sold to Renault at a significant loss. As of 2010, Renault Samsung is 80.1 percent owned by Renault and 19.9 percent owned by Samsung. Additionally, Samsung manufactured a range of aircraft from the 1980s to 1990s. The company was founded in 1999 as Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI), the result of merger between then three domestic major aerospace divisions of Samsung Aerospace, Daewoo Heavy Industries, and Hyundai Space and Aircraft Company. However, Samsung still manufactures aircraft engines and gas turbines. Samsung Techwin has been the sole supplier of a combustor module of the Trent 900 engine of the Rolls-Royce Airbus A380-The largest passenger airliner in the world- since 2001. Samsung Techwin of Korea are revenue-sharing participants in the Boeing's 787 Dreamliner GEnx engine program.
Samsung became the largest producer of memory chips in the world in 1992, and is the world's second-largest chipmaker after Intel (see Worldwide Top 20 Semiconductor Market Share Ranking Year by Year). In 1995, it built its first liquid-crystal display screen. Ten years later, Samsung grew to be the world's largest manufacturer of liquid-crystal display panels. Sony, which had not invested in large-size TFT-LCDs, contacted Samsung to cooperate, and, in 2006, S-LCD was established as a joint venture between Samsung and Sony in order to provide a stable supply of LCD panels for both manufacturers. S-LCD is owned by Samsung (50% plus 1 share) and Sony (50% minus 1 share) and operates its factories and facilities in Tangjung, South Korea.
Samsung Electronics overtook Sony as one of the world's most popular consumer electronics brands in 2004 and 2005, and is now ranked #19 in the world overall. Behind Nokia, Samsung is the world's second largest by volume producer of cell phones with a leading market share in the North America and Western Europe. SCTV and Indosiar are subsidiary of Surya Citra Media that owned by Samsung. In 2011, SCTV and Indosiar will merger and given stake by Samsung.
Veiled revenue
Consolidated revenue is the sum of the revenues perceived by the company and the revenues from its subsidiaries all together. In FY 2009, Samsung Group had a revenue of 220 trillion KRW ($172.5 billion), financial results are based on parent companies. They also do not contain the revenues of overseas subsidiaries, and no one knows about real revenues.
Partitions of Samsung Group
- First partition (1966)
In 1948, Cho Hong-jai (the Hyosung group’s founder) jointly invested in a new company called Samsung Mulsan Gongsa (삼성물산공사), or the Samsung Trading Corporation, with the Samsung Group founder Lee Byung-chull. The trading firm grew to become the present-day Samsung C&T Corporation. But after some years Cho and Lee parted ways due to some differences in management between the two men. He wanted to get up to a 30% group share. After settlement, Samsung Group was separated into Samsung Group and Hyosung Group, Hankook Tire ...etc.
After founder's death, Samsung Group was separated into Samsung Group and three other conglomerates - Shinsegae Group, CJ Group and Hansol Group. Shinsegae (discount store, department store) was originally part of Samsung Group, separated in the 1990s from the Samsung Group along with CJ Group (Food/Chemicals/Entertainment/logistics) and the Hansol Group (Paper/Telecom). The brand-new Shinsengae Centumcity Department Store is now officially recognized by Guinness World Records as the largest department store in the world. Today these separated groups are independent and they are not part of or connected to the Samsung Group. One Hansol Group representative said, "Only people ignorant of the laws governing the business world could believe something so absurd," adding, "When Hansol separated from the Samsung Group in 1991, it severed all payment guarantees and share-holding ties with Samsung affiliates." One Hansol Group source asserted, "Hansol, Shinsegae, and CJ have been under independent management since their respective separations from the Samsung Group." One Shinsegae Department Store executive director said, "Shinsegae has no payment guarantees associated with the Samsung Group."
Acquisitions
Samsung has been notoriously wary of such expansion since its unsuccessful purchase of companies in the late 1990s. Samsung, which has mainly focused on organic growth, has made no major acquisitions in past 10 years.
- Rolex – Swiss watch battle
- Samsung Techwin acquired a German camera-maker Rollei on 1995. Samsung (Rollei) used its optic expertise on the crystals of a new line of 100% Swiss-made watches, designed by a team of watchmakers at Nouvelle Piquerez S.A. in Bassequort, Switzerland. Rolex's decision to fight Rollei on every front stemmed from the close resemblance between the two names and fears that its sales would suffer as a consequence. In the face of such a threat, the Geneva firm decided to confront. Rolex, this was also a demonstration of the Swiss watch industry's determination to defend itself when an established brand is threatened. Rolex sees this front-line battle as vital for the entire Swiss watch industry. Rolex has succeeded in keeping Rollei out of the German market. On 11 March 1995 the Cologne District court prohibited the advertising and sale of Rollei watches on German territory.
- Fokker, a Dutch aircraft maker
- Samsung lost a chance to revive its failed bid to take over Dutch aircraft maker Fokker when other airplane makers rejected its offer to form a consortium. The three proposed partners – Hyundai, Hanjin and Daewoo – have notified the South Korean government that they will not join Samsung Aerospace Industries Ltd.
- AST Research
- Samsung bought AST (1994) and tried to break into North America， but the effort floundered.
Samsung was forced to close the California-based computer maker after a mass defection of research talent and a string of losses.
- FUBU clothing and apparel – a rare case of success
- In 1992, Daymond John had started the company with a hat collection that was made in his house in the Queens area of New York City. To fund the company, John had to mortgage his house for $100,000. With his friends, namely J. Alexander Martin, Carl Brown, and Keith Perrin, half of his house was turned into the first factory of FUBU, while the other half remained as the living quarters. Along with the expansion of FUBU, Samsung, a Korean company, invested in FUBU in 1995.
- Lehman Brothers Holdings’ Asian operations
- Samsung Securities was one of a handful of brokerages looking into Lehman Brothers Holdings. But Nomura Holdings has reportedly waved the biggest check to win its bid for Lehman Brothers Holdings’ Asian operations, beating out Samsung Securities, Standard Chartered, and Barclays. Ironically, after few months Samsung Securities Co., Ltd. and City of London-based N M Rothschild & Sons (more commonly known simply as Rothschild) have agreed to form a strategic alliance in investment banking business. Two parties will jointly work on cross border mergers and acquisition deals.
Products, customers and organizational structure
Notable customers
- Royal Dutch Shell
- Samsung Heavy Industries will be the sole provider of liquefied natural gas (LNG) storage facilities worth up to US$50 billion to Royal Dutch Shell for the next 15 years.
- United Arab Emirates government
- A consortium of South Korean firms - including Samsung, Korea Electric Power Corp and Hyundai - has won a deal worth 40 billion dollars to build nuclear power plants in the United Arab Emirates.
- Ontario government
- The government of the Canadian province of Ontario signed off one of the world's largest renewable energy projects, signing a $6.6bn deal that will result in 2,500 MW of new wind and solar energy capacity being built. Under the agreement a consortium – led by Samsung and the Korea Electric Power Corporation – will manage the development of 2,000 MW-worth of new wind farms and 500 MW of solar capacity, while also building a manufacturing supply chain in the province.
| Samsung's key clients (Q1 2010) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank/company | Part description | Buying (trillion KRW) | Percent of total sales | |||
| 1 Sony | DRAM, NAND flash, LCD panels, etc... | 1.28 | 3.7 | |||
| 2 Apple Inc | AP (mobile processor), DRAM, NAND flash, etc... | 0.9 | 2.6 | |||
| 3 Dell | DRAM, flat-panels, lithium-ion batteries, etc... | 0.87 | 2.5 | |||
| 4 HP | DRAM, flat-panels, lithium-ion batteries, etc... | 0.76 | 2.2 | |||
| 5 Verizon Communications | Handsets, etc... | 0.5 | 1.3 | |||
| 6 AT&T | Handsets, etc... | 0.5 | 1.3 | |||
Samsung Medical Center
Samsung Medical Center, a nonprofit medical organization. The Samsung Group donates around $100 million to Medical Center annually. The Samsung Medical Center(Korean: 삼성의료원) is composed of Samsung Seoul Hospital (Korean: 삼성서울병원), Kangbook Samsung Hospital (Korean: 강북삼성병원), Samsung Changwon Hospital (Korean: 삼성창원병원), Samsung Cancer Center (Korean:삼성암센터) and Samsung Life Sciences Research Center (Korean: 삼성생명과학연구소). Samsung Cancer Center in Seoul, the largest cancer center in Asia-even bigger than Korea's National Cancer Center and Japan National Cancer Center. Samsung Medical Center and Pfizer to Conduct Joint Research to Identify Genomic Mechanisms Responsible for Clinical Outcomes in Hepatocellular Carcinoma.
Etymology and logo history
According to the founder of Samsung Group, the meaning of the Korean hanja word Samsung (三星) is "tristar" or "three stars". The word "three" represents something "big, numerous and powerful"; the "stars" mean eternity.
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Sonic logo
Audio branding was produced by Musikvergnuegen and written by Walter Werzowa using the notes; Eb Ab Db Eb .
Controversy
From 1999 to 2002, Samsung conspired with Hynix Semiconductor, Infineon Technologies, Elpida Memory (Hitachi and NEC) and Micron Technology to fix the prices of DRAM chips sold to American computer makers. In 2005 Samsung agreed to plead guilty and to pay a $300 million fine, the second-largest criminal antitrust fine in US history.
In May 2010 the EU antitrust watchdog levied a €145.73 million fine against Samsung for the same DRAM cartel.
In December 2010 the European Commission fined six LCD panel producers including Samsung a total of €648.925 million for operating a cartel. Samsung received a full reduction of the potential fine for being the first firm to cooperate with the EU anti-trust authorities.
In April 2011 Apple Inc. announced that they were suing Samsung over the design of their Galaxy range of mobile phones. The lawsuit was filed on 15 April 2011 and alleges that Samsung violated Apple's trademarks and patents and "slavishly" copied the iPhone and iPad. Of the lawsuit, Apple said "This kind of blatant copying is wrong." Samsung issued a statement saying "Samsung's development of core technologies and strengthening our intellectual property portfolio are keys to our continued success" before announcing that they would contest the allegations. A few days later, Samsung issued a counterclaim against Apple claiming patent infringement.
2012 Olympics
Samsung is hoping their role in the London 2012 Olympic Games will provide a "golden moment" for the company's UK reputation, according to Olympic news outlet Around the Rings. Vice President Gyehyun Kwon told ATR that "double digit gains in U.K. consumer awareness are possible" through Samsung's partnership with London 2012.
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