Samsung, South Korea’s largest business group, was facing a leadership crisis after its chairman quit in the wake of a scandal, the acting chairman said yesterday.
“Without a captain or rudder, Samsung now faces a complex crisis, with each unit meeting cut-throat competition independently,” Lee Soo-bin said.
“The group was able to ride out a previous crisis together thanks to former chairman Lee Kun-hee’s strong leadership and the guidance of the Strategic Planning Office. Now we cannot do so,” he said.
Special prosecutors this year mounted a three-month probe into corruption allegations against the multinational and charged Lee Kun-hee in April with tax evasion and breach of trust.
He quit the group later that month after almost 20 years at the helm and is now on trial.
Samsung announced management changes, scrapping the 90-strong Strategic Planning Office. It acted as the “control tower” of the loose-knit group, which has 59 affiliates, but was implicated in the scandal.
The group has created two decision-making committees of chief executives from various affiliates to address fears of a vacuum in decision-making.
Acting chairman Lee Soo-bin, the chairman of Samsung Life Insurance, was speaking after holding the first meeting with chief executives of affiliates since Lee Kun-hee’s departure.
When his trial began on June 12, Lee Kun-hee accepted blame for any lapses at the group, which employs 250,000 people and accounted for more than 20 percent of the country’s exports last year.
But his lawyers are contesting the specifics of the charges.
The key point was whether Lee instigated and planned the controversial transfer of control over the group from himself to his son Lee Jae-yong.
Both father and son appeared in court Tuesday, with the son a defense witness for his father.
Lee senior denied authorizing the issuance of low-priced bonds, the basis of the breach of trust charge, so that his son could take over.
He is also charged with evading a capital gains tax bill of 112.8 billion won (US$110 million) and could technically face life in prison if convicted.
Most other Korean tycoons brought to court on criminal charges have escaped severe punishment, with judges citing a negative impact on the economy.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”