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Samsung Group (Hangul: 삼성; Hanja: 三星; Korean pronunciation: [samsʌŋ]) is a South Korean multinational conglomerateheadquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul.[1] It comprises numerous affiliated businesses,[1] most of them united under the Samsungbrand, and is the largest South Korean chaebol (business conglomerate).
Samsung was founded by Lee Byung-chul in 1938 as a trading company. Over the next three decades, the group diversified into areas including food processing, textiles, insurance, securities and retail. Samsung entered the electronics industry in the late 1960s and the construction and shipbuilding industries in the mid-1970s; these areas would drive its subsequent growth. Following Lee's death in 1987, Samsung was separated into four business groups – Samsung Group, Shinsegae Group, CJ Group and HansolGroup. Since 1990, Samsung has increasingly globalised its activities and electronics; in particular, its mobile phones and semiconductors have become its most important source of income.
Notable Samsung industrial affiliates include Samsung Electronics (the world's 2nd largest information technology companymeasured by 2015 revenues, and 5th in market value),[4] Samsung Heavy Industries (the world's 2nd largest shipbuilder measured by 2010 revenues),[5] and Samsung Engineering and Samsung C&T (respectively the world's 13th and 36th largest construction companies).[6] Other notable subsidiaries include Samsung Life Insurance (the world's 14th largest life insurance company),[7]Samsung Everland (operator of Everland Resort, the oldest theme park in South Korea)[8] and Cheil Worldwide (the world's 15th largest advertising agency measured by 2012 revenues).
Samsung has a powerful influence on South Korea's economic development, politics, media and culture and has been a major driving force behind the "Miracle on the Han River".[11][12] Its affiliate companies produce around a fifth of South Korea's total exports.[13] Samsung's revenue was equal to 17% of South Korea's $1,082 billion GDP.
In 1980, Samsung acquired the Gumi-based Hanguk Jeonja Tongsin and entered telecommunications hardware. Its early products were switchboards. The facility was developed into the telephone and fax manufacturing systems and became the center of Samsung's mobile phone manufacturing. They have produced over 800 million mobile phones to date.[21] The company grouped them together under Samsung Electronics in the 1980s.
After Lee, the founder's death in 1987, Samsung Group was separated into four business groups—Samsung Group, Shinsegae Group, CJ Group and the Hansol Group.[22] 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). Today these separated groups are independent and they are not part of or connected to the Samsung Group.[23] 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".
In 1980s, Samsung Electronics began to invest 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, Texas, in 1996. As of 2012, Samsung has invested more than US$13,000,000,000 in the Austin facility, which operates under the name Samsung Austin Semiconductor. This makes the Austin location the largest foreign investment in Texas and one of the largest single foreign investments in the United States.
On August 24, 2012, nine American jurors ruled that Samsung had to pay Apple $1.05 billion in damages for violating six of its patents on smartphone technology. The award was still less than the $2.5 billion requested by Apple. The decision also ruled that Apple did not violate five Samsung patents cited in the case.[37] Samsung decried the decision saying that the move could harm innovation in the sector.[38] It also followed a South Korean ruling stating that both companies were guilty of infringing on each other's intellectual property.[39] In first trading after the ruling, Samsung shares on the Kospi index fell 7.7%, the largest fall since October 24, 2008, to 1,177,000 Korean won.[40] Apple then sought to ban the sales of eight Samsung phones (Galaxy S 4G, Galaxy S2 AT&T, Galaxy S2 Skyrocket, Galaxy S2 T-Mobile, Galaxy S2 Epic 4G, Galaxy S Showcase, Droid Charge and Galaxy Prevail) in the United States[41] which has been denied by the court.
On September 4, 2012, Samsung announced that it plans to examine all of its Chinese suppliers for possible violations of labor policies. The company said it will carry out audits of 250 Chinese companies that are its exclusive suppliers to see if children under the age of 16 are being used in their factories.[43]
In 2013, a New Zealand news outlet reported a number of Samsung washing machines spontaneously catching on fire.[44] The corporation is expected to spend $14 billion on advertising and marketing in 2013, with publicity appearing in TV and cinema ads, on billboards and at sports and arts events. In November 2013, the corporation was valued at $227 billion.
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