Technology giant Samsung Electronics Co Ltd’s long-time handset division head is ceding day-to-day management of the struggling smartphone business in the biggest leadership change yet under the Samsung conglomerate’s heir-apparent, Jay Lee.
Samsung Group said 54-year-old Koh Dong-jin is to take over as president of the mobile communications business from 59-year-old J.K. Shin, who will remain head of the overall mobile division for Samsung Electronics, and focus on long-term strategy and developing new growth businesses.
The move diminishes Shin’s influence on the mobile business as the former cash-cow battles to reverse a slide in its market share to rivals such as Apple Inc, Huawei Technologies Co Ltd (華為) and Xiaomi Inc (小米).
Photo: Reuters
“While it’s true that Shin delivered remarkable performance in the past, it’s indisputable that the Galaxy S6’s results fell short of expectations, so a new leader was needed,” Hansung University economics professor Kim Sang-jo said. “Today’s appointments appear to acknowledge the need to develop a management system that can more proactively respond to challenges from Xiaomi and other Chinese companies.”
The group’s annual announcement of management changes also saw another top executive moved into a strategic role, with TV and appliances division chief Yoon Boo-keun shifted out of the day-to-day operations of the appliances business.
Analysts said that while the moves at the mobile division were an apparent acknowledgment that change was needed, they did not expect a new strategy to emerge any time soon.
“Koh is basically the same person as Shin,” Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology business professor Chang Sea-jin said.
Analysts have said Samsung needed to step up its software and services offerings to revive its mobile business, but Koh, who has held mobile business roles since 2006, has an engineering background like Shin.
“There is no real change and Samsung appears to be continuing on the hardware-centric path,” Chang said.
Jay Lee, 47, has been the de facto leader of the smartphones-to-construction conglomerate since his father and group patriarch, Lee Kun-hee, was hospitalized following a heart attack last year.
Under the younger Lee’s leadership, the group has faced mounting investor pressure to boost shareholder returns and find new growth engines as the smartphone business slows.
Shin, in charge of the mobile business since 2009, was instrumental in delivering record profits through the sales of Galaxy smartphones before a sharp earnings decline starting last year appeared to put his standing at risk. Some media reports said he was on the way out last year.
Samsung has implemented new designs and cut prices for high-end products to boost sales, but researchers say its global market share continued to fall year-on-year in the third quarter.
“This is basically a retirement for Shin,” Chang said.
However, others said that Shin could still exert influence through his role as mobile division chief.
Samsung said Koh, previously head of Samsung mobile research and development, played an important role in the development of premium devices such as the Galaxy S6 and the Galaxy Note 5.
The company touted his experience in helping to develop software and services, such as its mobile payments service and the KNOX security platform.
“Jay Lee has yet to assume the role of chairman, so there’s still some time before we see bigger-scale changes,” said Chung Sun-sup, head of corporate analysis firm Chaebul.com.
To many, Tatu City on the outskirts of Nairobi looks like a success. The first city entirely built by a private company to be operational in east Africa, with about 25,000 people living and working there, it accounts for about two-thirds of all foreign investment in Kenya. Its low-tax status has attracted more than 100 businesses including Heineken, coffee brand Dormans, and the biggest call-center and cold-chain transport firms in the region. However, to some local politicians, Tatu City has looked more like a target for extortion. A parade of governors have demanded land worth millions of dollars in exchange
Hong Kong authorities ramped up sales of the local dollar as the greenback’s slide threatened the foreign-exchange peg. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) sold a record HK$60.5 billion (US$7.8 billion) of the city’s currency, according to an alert sent on its Bloomberg page yesterday in Asia, after it tested the upper end of its trading band. That added to the HK$56.1 billion of sales versus the greenback since Friday. The rapid intervention signals efforts from the city’s authorities to limit the local currency’s moves within its HK$7.75 to HK$7.85 per US dollar trading band. Heavy sales of the local dollar by
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) revenue jumped 48 percent last month, underscoring how electronics firms scrambled to acquire essential components before global tariffs took effect. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp reported monthly sales of NT$349.6 billion (US$11.6 billion). That compares with the average analysts’ estimate for a 38 percent rise in second-quarter revenue. US President Donald Trump’s trade war is prompting economists to retool GDP forecasts worldwide, casting doubt over the outlook for everything from iPhone demand to computing and datacenter construction. However, TSMC — a barometer for global tech spending given its central role in the
An Indonesian animated movie is smashing regional box office records and could be set for wider success as it prepares to open beyond the Southeast Asian archipelago’s silver screens. Jumbo — a film based on the adventures of main character, Don, a large orphaned Indonesian boy facing bullying at school — last month became the highest-grossing Southeast Asian animated film, raking in more than US$8 million. Released at the end of March to coincide with the Eid holidays after the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, the movie has hit 8 million ticket sales, the third-highest in Indonesian cinema history, Film
RSS