History

It has been suggested that History of Samsung be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)

[edit] 1950s - 1980s

1950: Byung-Chul Lee founded Samsung trading company in Seoul ([YPM]) 1953: Samsung starts sugar production, which has since been spun off into the

CJ Corporation. 1958: Samsung starts insurance business. 1963: The first Shinsegae department store opens in Seoul. 1964: Samsung starts Tongyang Broadcasting Company(TBC), which later

merged with KBS. 1965: Samsung starts the Joong-Ang Ilbo daily newspaper, which is no longer

affiliated with the company. 1969: Samsung Electronics was founded. 1974: Samsung Petrochemical and Heavy Industries were founded. 1976: The company was awarded an export prize by the government as a part of

the country's development program. 1977: As a result of this export prize, Samsung Construction emerged. In

addition, Samsung Shipbuilding is formed. 1982: Samsung establishes a professional baseball team. 1983: Samsung produces its first computer chip: a 64k DRAM chip. Towards the end of the 1980s, Samsung pushed its efforts in petrochemicals and

electronics

[edit] The 1990s and present

The 1990s saw Samsung rise as an international corporation. Not only did it acquire a number of businesses abroad, but also began leading the way in certain electronic components. Samsung's construction branch was awarded a contract to build one of the two Petronas Towers in Malaysia in September 1993 and the Burj Dubai in 2004, which is the tallest structure ever created by mankind. In 1996, the Samsung Group reacquired the Sungkyunkwan University foundation.Compared to other major Korean companies, Samsung survived the Asian financial crisis of 1997-98 relatively unharmed. However, Samsung Motor Co, a $5 billion venture was sold to Renault at a significant loss. Most importantly, Samsung Electronics (SEC) was officially spun-off from the Samsung Group and has since come to dominate the group and the worldwide semiconductor business, even surpassing worldwide leader Intel in investments for the 2005 fiscal year. Samsung's brand strength has greatly improved in the last few years. Considered a strong competitor by its rivals, Samsung Electronics expanded production dramatically to become the world's largest manufacturer of DRAM chips, flash memory, optical storage drives and it aims to double sales and become the top manufacturer

of 20 products globally by 2010. It is now one of the world's leading manufacturers of liquid crystal displays and next generation mobile phones.Samsung Electronics, which saw record profits and revenue in 2004 and 2005, overtook Sony as one of the world's most consumer electronics brands, and is now ranked #20 in the world overall.By late 2005, Samsung had a net worth of US$77.6 billion.

[edit] Price fixing

On November 30, 2005, Samsung pled guilty to a charge it participated in DRAM price fixing collusion during 1999-2002 that damaged competition and raised PC prices. In a deal with prosecutors, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and its U.S. subsidiary, Samsung Semiconductor Inc., were to pay a $300 million fine. As a result of this investigation, Hynix was to pay $185 million in 2005, and Infineon $160 million in 2004. Micron Technology, the US firm who initiated the case, cooperated with prosecutors and no fine is expected. Recently, a severely weakened Micron has teamed up with Intel to take on Samsung in the lucrative NAND flash business, although Intel has no desire to fully engage Samsung after Samsung drove Intel out of the flash business.In October 2006 Samsung was again subpoenaed for price fixing SRAM, along with Mitsubishi, Sony, Toshiba, and Cypress Semiconductor.

[edit] Audio branding

Along with Samsung's increasing recognition for various electronic components came a broad-reaching branding campaign supported by the audio branding experts, Musikvergnuegen, who created the sound of the Samsung Mnemonic in 2005. Composed by Austrian-born composer Walter Werzowa, who also founded Musikvergnuegen, this was followed by various longform music pieces based off his signature melody. All are current today.

[edit] Criticisms

To this date, Samsung maintains a strict "no labor union" policy (무노조 정책 munojo jeongchaek) inside Korea, by closely monitoring workers and sometimes establishing "ghost labor unions" to prevent the creation of real ones.[2][3] (Under Korean law, a company can have at most one labor union.) Although this has drawn intense criticism from Korean labor activists, many conservative media, including Joongang Ilbo with its close ties with Samsung group, actually views this as a case study of why labor unions are bad for economy and should be suppressed at each company's discretion (because Samsung has been immensely successful as a company).

In a recent report, a number of consumers are complaining to Samsung Electronics after they found out that some PC monitors and laptops they have bought under the Samsung name are actually built on Taiwan-made LCD panels. Several Samsung monitor models, including the 20-inch XL20 model, are built on non-Samsung panels either because the company does not produce that specific size, or because it is more affordable. [4]

[edit] MarketsCurrently, Samsung has sixteen products that have dominated the world’s market share, including: DRAM, color cathode-ray tube TVs (CPT, CDT), SRAM, TFT-LCD glass substrates, TFT-LCD, STN-LCD, tuner, CDMA handset, color television (CTV), monitor, flash memory, LCD Driver IC (LDI), PDP module, PCB for handheld (mobile phone plates), Flame Retardant ABS, and Dimethyl Formamide (DMF).Plus in the Television market, Samsung and LG make the only screens for LCD TFT televisions and then later sell them on to the other companies.According to Interbrand and BusinessWeek, Samsung’s brand value ranked 43rd (USD 5.2billion) in 2000, 42nd (USD 6.4 billion) in 2001, 34th (USD 8.3 billion) in 2002, 25th (USD 10.8 billion) in 2003, 21st (USD 12.5 billion) in 2004, and 20th (14.9 billion) in 2005 among top global companies.In terms of export that directly contributes to the Korean economy, Samsung took up 18.1% of the all exports with USD 31.2 billion in 2000 and 20.7% with USD 52.7 billion in 2004. In addition, Samsung's tax payments to the Korean government in 2003 was KRW 6.5 trillion, which is about 6.3% of total tax revenue.The market value of Samsung in 1997 reached KRW 7.3 trillion in 1997, which amounted to 10.3% of the Korean market but this figure increased to KRW 90.8 trillion taking up 22.4% in 2004.Moreover, the annual net profit of Samsung marked KRW 5.8 trillion in 2001, KRW 11.7 trillion in 2002, KRW 7.4 trillion in 2003, and KRW 15.7 trillion in 2004, showing forth a steady increase.In order to enhance the working environment and build a strong and trustworthy foundation, the semiconductor sector of Samsung Electronics has been conducting a ‘Great Workplace Program’ called GWP since 1998. Then, in 2003, GWP has spread throughout the entire Samsung Group as Samsung Fire and Marine Insurance, Samsung SDI, Samsung Everland, Samsung Corporation, Cheil Industries, Samsung Networks, and others started to apply its core principles. In 2006, 9 subsidiary companies of Samsung Electronics, 80 overseas branches, and 130 overseas business sectors have reported that they are actively applying the GWP.Dramatic surge in Net Profits starting in the late 90's: $2.2Bil (1999), $7.3Bil (2000), $8.9Bil (2002), $11.8Bil (2004).

Samsung's Brand Value conducted by Interbrand of the world's top 100 brands: $6.4Bil (2001), $8.3Bil(2002), $10.8Bil(2003), $12.5Bil(2004), $14.9Bil(2005).Market Capitalization (Ratio to the total market value of all Korean listed stocks):A dramatic increase from 7.3 trillion KRW, 10.3% of the total national listing value in 1997. At the end of 2004 national listing value in 22.4%.Samsung's Annual Profits Growth: $4.5Bil (2001), $8.9Bil (2002), $5.6Bil (2003), $11.8Bil (2004) and Debt-to-Equity Ratio Decrease: 104% (2000), 78% (2001), 68% (2002), 56% (2003), 51% (2004).