BUSINESS HISTORY REPORT

SAMSUNG: The South

Korean Chaebol
TABLE OF CONTENTS
● Executive
Summary……………………………………………………………………………
…………...2
● The
Beginning…………………………………………………………………………
……………………...3
● About the
Founders……………………………………………………………………………
…………..4
● Samsung and the
industry……………………………………………………………………………..
.5
➔ The Electronics Industry
➔ Samsung; a follower or initiator
● A Growing
Success……………………………………………………………………………
…………...7
➔ Entering the Global Marketplace
➔ Organization Of Samsung’s Partnership Program
➔ The First Manufacturing Subsidiary (SEP) Established In Portugal
➔ Major Factors That Played A Critical In Samsung’s Growth
● The Samsung group and its impact on society………………………………….
………..12
➔ Miracle On The Han River
➔ Samsung In The Modern South Korea
● Coping with
changes……………………………………………………………………………
……….14
● Major events and
Timeline…………………………………………………………………………...1
7
● Looking Towards The
Future……………………………………………………………………...26

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● Exhibits………………………………………………………………………….
……………………………...26
● References…………………………………………………………………………
………………………...29

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Executive Summary
The Samsung Group is a South Korean multinational conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town,
Seoul. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses,most of them united under the Samsung brand, and is
the largest South Korean chaebol (business conglomerate). As of 2020, Samsung has the 8th highest
global brand value.

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.

Notable Samsung industrial affiliates include Samsung Electronics-the world's largest information
technology company, consumer electronics maker and chipmaker measured by 2017 revenues,Samsung
Heavy Industries-the world's 2nd largest shipbuilder measured by 2010 revenues,and Samsung
Engineering and Samsung C&T Corporation-respectively the world's 13th and 36th largest construction
companies.Other notable subsidiaries include Samsung Life Insurance-the world's 14th largest life
insurance company,Samsung Everland, the operator of Everland Resort, the oldest theme park in South
Korea and Cheil Worldwide the world's 15th largest advertising agency, as measured by 2012 revenues.

The Beginning
In 1938, Lee Byung-Chul (1910–1987) of a huge landowning family in the Uiryeong region moved to
nearby city Daegu and established Samsung Sanghoe.Samsung began as a little exchange organization
with forty representatives situated in Su-dong. It managed dried fish, privately developed staple goods
and noodles. The organization succeeded and Lee moved its head office to Seoul in 1947.

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When the Korean War broke out, Lee had to leave Seoul. He began a sugar processing plant in Busan
named Cheil Jedang. In 1954, Lee found Cheil Mojik. It was the biggest woollen factory in the
country.Samsung broadened into a wide range of territories. Lee wanted to build Samsung as a pioneer in
a wide scope of enterprises.

In 1947, Cho Hong-Jai, the Hyosung gathering's organizer, put resources into another organization called
Samsung Mulsan Gongsa or the Samsung Trading Corporation with Samsung's founder Lee Byung-Chul.
The exchanging firm developed into the present-day Samsung C&T Corporation.

After a few years in business, Cho and Lee got separated due to the differences in the management style.
In 1980, Samsung acquired the Gumi-based Hanguk Jeonja Tongsin and entered the telecommunications
market. During the initial days, it sold switchboards.

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About The Founders
Ho-Am Byung-chull Lee was a South Korean businessman. He was the founder of the Samsung Group,
which is South Korea's largest business group, and one of South Korea's most successful businessmen. He
was a pioneer of modern entrepreneurship and was a beacon of national economic development for South
Korea.
Born on 12th February, 1910 in Uiryeong County in South Korea Byung-chul was the youngest and only
son of four siblings to father Lee Chan-woo and mother Kwon Jae-lim. Byung-chul was the son of a
wealthy landowning yangban family and inherited huge wealth from them. He attended high school at
Joongdong High School in Seoul, and then college at Waseda University in Tokyo but did not complete
his degree. Initially, he used his inherited wealth to start a rice mill. Although he dedicated himself in this
first business it failed to float and sank without generating any major profits.
After the failure of his first business Lee established an export business in Daegu on 1st March, 1938 and
named the company Samsung Trading Co. Byung-Chull Lee, who founded the Samsung Store in 1938,
was the leading business visionary of his time. With a philosophy of service to the nation through
business and an emphasis on cultivating quality human resources, Lee is remembered today as much for
his pioneering role in Korea's industrialization as for his philanthropic activities and spirit of social duty.
The company exported varieties of goods and eatables like fish, vegetables, and fruits to the regions of
China. The company saw a major boom in growth as it was supplying goods throughout Korea and even
to other countries by 1945. The company was then shifted to Seoul in 1947. Samsung Trading Co. was
considered to be one of the ten largest trading companies during that time. But as the war broke out Chull
had to shift his company to a safer location in Busan around 1950.
This shifting came as a boon for Chull. So he started a sugar refinery which saw the light of success quite
early. After the war, he went on to set up a wool factory in 1954 in Daegu which later became the largest
wool factory in the country. As the business was growing Chull ventured into various other sectors like
finance, insurance, retail, and security.
Chull had a strong belief in industrialization and wanted the Samsung group to become a leader in every
sector. It was in the 1960s that Samsung ventured into the electronics industry to take over the market just
like other sectors. Samsung focused on creating innovative products and soon the company released their
first product – a black and white television. By the mid and late 1960s Samsung already had six divisions
focused on departments like semiconductors, telecommunications, hardware, etc. Mr. Lee also devoted
himself to preserving the nation's cultural heritage for future generations. Lee Byung-Chull sat in the
throne, and over the years to come, most of his six daughters and four sons would occupy positions of
great power with the carefully-cultivated chaebol. But none would be as prominent as Lee’s youngest son
Kun-hee, who officially joined the chaebol in 1968 after studying economics at Japan’s prestigious
Waseda University and getting his MBA from George Washington University.

In 1997, the Ho-Am Foundation was created in memory of founder Lee's contribution to
society.Samsung's, and indeed Korea's, strong presence in semiconductors, electronics, engineering,
aerospace and many other future-oriented industries can be traced directly to the early foresight and
determination of founder Lee.

The Business Group and the Industry

Samsung has been growing and innovating since 1938, when it started out as a food exporter shipping
dried fish and flour from Korea to China. In the 1950s it got into life insurance and textiles. Samsung

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Electronics was founded in 1969. In the early 1990s Samsung started producing processors and hard
drives for PCs, exporting them to companies including today’s smartphone rivals Apple.

The Electronics Industry

The electronics industry emerged in the 20th century and is today one of the largest global industries.
Contemporary society uses a vast array of electronic devices built in automated or semi-automated
factories operated by the industry.
Consumer electronics are products intended for everyday use, most often in entertainment,
communications and office productivity. Radio broadcasting in the early 20th century brought the first
major consumer product, the broadcast receiver. Later products include personal computers, telephones,
MP3 players, cell phones, smart phones, audio equipment, televisions, calculators, GPS automotive
electronics, digital cameras and players and recorders using video media such as DVDs, VCRs or
camcorders. Increasingly these products have become based on digital technologies, and have largely
merged with the computer industry in what is increasingly referred to as the consumerization of
information technology.

Samsung; a follower or an initiator ?

In 1983, when Motorola launched the Motorola 8000, Samsung was still proudly making black-and-white
TVs. Today, the Motorola brand name has all but vanished: only the “Moto” product name is left as a
small reminder of what was once a pioneering company at the forefront of innovation.

Samsung, on the other hand, has become a dominant force in consumer electronics. It introduced its first
Android phone, the Galaxy S, in 2010.

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Samsung’s strategy has been essentially to read the markets, Samsung figures out where the world is
heading in terms of mass-market consumer electronics products, sees what is selling well and what is
growing and moves into that space with a better product than the original offering.

Every time Apple launches a new product, Samsung brings out its own version a year or so later: think of
the touchscreen phone, the tablet, the smart watch. And it isn’t just Apple that has been Samsung’s
inspiration: twenty years ago, Sony was first to market; Samsung was close on its heels.

Samsung is the classic fast follower: they’re attuned to what competitors are doing and what other people
are bringing to market first. They watch like a hawk as others gain traction and then very rapidly come up
with their own version.

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GROWING SUCCESS
1969 saw the founding of Samsung Electronics, the subsidiary that would ultimately go on to become
perhaps the world’s most powerful electronics brand. But that’s a long way off, it’s first products were
mostly modest home appliances. Samsung’s inaugural black-and-white television set rolled off assembly
lines in 1969 by way of a joint venture with Sanyo since the Korean subsidiary had no experience putting
TVs together, and refrigerators, air conditioners, and electric fans soon followed.

It didn’t take long for Lee to figure out that the growing demand for consumer electronics of all stripes
could mean very big things for Samsung down the road, but there was a problem that many of the
components that went into Samsung’s products came from overseas, and Japan in particular. Considering
that Japanese companies like Sony had been churning out well-received gizmos for years at that point,
nascent Korean electronics companies had grown dependent on imports of foreign components and
technological know-how.

Samsung decided to do something about that. In 1974 it nabbed a majority stake in Korea Semiconductor
in a bid to help wean itself off of foreign tech. Not everyone within Samsung’s brass agreed with the
decision granted, going from piecing together consumer electronics to building components seems
slightly backwards, so Byung-Chull decided to settle matters with his own checkbook with some
prodding from his son Kun-hee. Korea Semiconductor was renamed Samsung Semiconductor in 1978 and
Samsung would soon begin to sling its own silicon, a move that would pay off handsomely in the decades
to come.

The rest of the 1970s would see Samsung Electronics making strides abroad with its inexpensive wares.
One of its earliest international hits was a cheap colour television. It first made a splash in Panama of all
places before making its debut in the United States. It was a slow start, but a start all the same. Black and
white sets hadn’t gone completely out of style yet though, and Samsung Electronics had manufactured
almost 10 million of its cost-conscious sets by the end of the decade.

By the time 1980 rolled around, the Samsung Group had grown to become one of the most prominent
chaebols in South Korea, with a construction company, a petrochemicals division, and a ship-building
arm supplementing the conglomerate’s sugar, paper, and newspaper businesses.

Over the years, Samsung grew in its success, and had sold over 1o million black-and-white televisions by
1981. The Samsung Group also expanded in 1974, taking interest in the semiconductor market. It did this
by acquiring Korea Semiconductor, a company that was failing at the time and on the verge of filing for
bankruptcy. This eventually evolved into the establishment of Samsung Semiconductor &
Communication.

Samsung also founded Samsung Data Systems, now known as Samsung SDS, in 1985, which served
businesses' ever-increasing requirements for systems developments.

At this point in time, it is safe to say Samsung was doing well.

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Back in 1970, Samsung’s electronics unit started out making cheap TV sets for the Sanyo label, but over
time, it transformed into an innovative company and has turned out to be a pioneer in developing large
flat-screen displays, plasma TVs, and cutting-edge smartphones. But until the mid-1990s, they competed
mainly by developing technical components and low-cost manufactured products for bigger brands, such
as Dell, Hewlett Packard, and GE. They were also selling other low-cost consumer products like TVs and
microwave ovens under the Samsung brand through discount chains like Walmart.

Until the 1997 Asian market crash, the low cost-driven competitive strategy worked well for them. At the
time, the market for memory chips and other components Samsung supplied to electronics producers saw
increased competition, leading to excess capacity, while sales of the Samsung branded products were
falling as well. Despite these facts, the company’s CEO Yun Jong-yong voiced that Samsung could
produce products that were as good as Sony’s, but because of the brand’s downmarket image, their TV’s
would sit at the back of the stores.

Samsung SW-C509L ECONO Black and White TV,First TV with an instant image receiving tube without need
to warm up. This TV went on to take over 40 percent of the South Korean domestic market.

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Entering the Global marketplace 1981~1983
Organization Of Samsung’s Partnership Program
In March, 1981, Samsung Electronics acknowledged the fact that its partnerships were crucial for their
businesses. Therefore, they launched an organization to help strengthen the relationships between
Samsung and its partners. Samsung systemized their 2000+ partners into categories to develop better
mutual relationships, as well as providing training opportunities for all involved.

The First Manufacturing Subsidiary (SEP) Established In Portugal

Samsung’s core technology businesses diversified and expanded globally during the early 1980s. For
example, Samsung established its first manufacturing subsidiary in Portugal in 1982. This was the first
manufacturing subsidiary of a Korean company. By 1984 another manufacturing subsidiary was founded
in the United States and by 1987 the same thing happened in the United Kingdom. A Mexican
manufacturing subsidiary was established in 1988 to help Samsung become the global leader in the
electronics market.

Samsung started in Portugal for a few reasons. In 1982, Portugal had the lowest distribution rate for TVs
in Europe and had an eager low-cost workforce. Portugal was also about to enter EC (European
Community) so the timing worked out well for Samsung to enter Portugal’s market in preparation for the
near future.

Samsung Electronics signed a partnership agreement with EAMCET, one of the top three colour TV
assembly companies in the world, and MRI, a home appliances sales company in England. Samsung
established Samsung Electronics Portugal Inc. to manufacture 1.5 Million units of colour TVs and started
to produce colour TVs in September 1982. Later on, the Portugal manufacturing subsidiary moved on to
export their TVs to the Netherlands, Denmark, England, and Germany.

1983 was a big year. Samsung started to make personal computers and succeeded in developing an 8-bit
PC (SPC-1000) as well as upgrading information processing technologies. By 1987, the 32-bit SPC-6000
had the fastest speed in terms of data processing and it was the optimal device for CAD/CAM and
engineering groups.

In 1983, Samsung sold 17,000 PCs and by 1988, they’d sold over 205,000 units. Exports were up too. In
1987, Samsung was able to export 70,000 units of PCs.

And of course, mobile was another one of those big opportunities. If a strategy based on weighty
investments and rapid development helped Samsung stay ahead of its Japanese display rivals, then it
helped Samsung take on the world with its mobile devices.

The approach would best be described as “scattershot.” Be they feature phones or Android smartphones;
Samsung Electronics has always seen fit to churn them out at an astonishing rate to see what clicks with
consumers. That’s led to a considerable number of one-off devices meant to stand on their own and then
disappear after mere months on the market, but hits are inevitable and so are their sequels.

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Consider the company’s flagship Galaxy S series, for instance. First introduced in 2010, the Galaxy S was
one of the first Android devices to become a runaway success, despite companies like HTC and Motorola
having a considerable head start. From there, the typical Samsung drive to iterate kicked in and now, after
less than three years, Samsung is already preparing to push its Galaxy S4 out the door and into the world
marketplace. One could argue (and some already have) that Samsung’s Galaxy S4 is little more than a
software-centric rehash of the model that preceded it, but that’s not really the point.

It’s better than the model that came before it, and it’s been released less than a year since the Galaxy S III
came out. Samsung is fighting to maintain its position at the head of the curve through production and
development speed — don’t expect that to change any time soon.

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Major Factors That Played A Critical In Samsung’s Growth
• Continuous launches of innovative products that suit consumers’ new lifestyle, trends, and needs
including the BESPOKE refrigerator, Sero TV, and Galaxy Fold

• Strong growth potential based on future innovation technologies including 5G, AI, IoT and the
automotive business

• Global number one position in the semiconductor memory market and technology leadership in the
industry

Samsung’s mobile business has kept up with successful launches in the Galaxy series. The company led
the industry in the foldable smartphones category by launching Galaxy Fold, and continued its effort in
resonating with consumers with Samsung’s brand story “Do What You Can’t”. Its visual display
business, a market leader for 13 consecutive years, not only provided new viewing experiences for
consumers through QLED 8K and Micro LED displays, but also further reflected consumers’ lifestyles by
introducing The Sero, The Frame and The Serif. In digital appliances, Samsung has maintained its
premium market leadership position in both refrigerators and washing machines and went on to release
innovative new products with differentiated consumer benefits such as BESPOKE.

Spearheading advanced 5G technology, Samsung launched its first 5G smartphone. Its 5G technology
also assumes a significant role in making AI and IoT more tangible and realizable. It has also accelerated
the autonomous vehicle era with its incomparable speed.

Samsung’s semiconductor memory business reinforced its market presence this year by beginning mass
production of the industry’s first 12-gigabit (Gb) LPDDR5 mobile DRAM and its sixth-generation V-
NAND which features the industry’s first 100+ layer single-stack design. Furthermore, Samsung has been
continuously investing in R&D and expanding production facilities in the system semiconductor field.

Samsung’s market leadership and investment in innovation also contributed to this year’s successful
evaluation. The company’s investments were not limited to in-house R&D, but also included efforts to
expand its product ecosystem through strategic partnerships, as well as investment in start-ups that have
cultivated new business opportunities in a variety of fields, including the automotive industry.

Samsung And Its Impact On The Society

South Korea’s biggest business conglomerate —The Samsung Group has nearly 80 affiliates. The family-
run group has a powerful influence on South Korea's economic development, politics, media and culture.

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It has always been the star chaebol, and now Samsung Electronics is ranked the world's 8th most valuable
brand by Forbes magazine as of 2020. The chaebol completely dominate the Korean economy, with
Samsung accounting for one-fifth of Korea’s exports, and the 30 biggest chaebol for over four-fifths of
exports. The chaebol’s penchant for empire-building is symbolized by Samsung’s 80 subsidiaries, which
cover a vast array of unrelated industries like electronics, insurance, shipbuilding and petrochemicals. But
they have been successful in upgrading the Korean economy from a producer of low-end manufactures to
high-tech electronics and automobiles.

Miracle On The Han River

The Miracle on the Han River refers to the period of rapid economic growth in South Korea, following
the Korean War (1950–1953), during which South Korea transformed from a developing country to a
developed country.Samsung has been a major driving force behind the "Miracle on the Han River".It
received state incentives from the government such as tax breaks, legality for their hyper-exploitation
system and cheap or free financing along with the other Chaebol families so that they would bring in
more business developing the country’s economy.

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Samsung In The Modern South Korea
So sprawling is Samsung’s modern-day empire that some South Koreans say it has become possible to
live a Samsung-only life: You can use a Samsung credit card to buy a Samsung TV for the living room of
your Samsung-made apartment on which you’ll watch the Samsung-owned pro baseball team.

Samsung is South Korea’s greatest economic success, and, more recently, the subject of major
controversy. Economists, owners of small- and medium-size businesses, and some politicians say
Samsung no longer merely powers the country but overpowers it, wielding influence that nearly matches
that of the government.

Debate over how to curb the size and power of Samsung and other family-run conglomerates has become
the key issue in South Korea’s Dec. 19 presidential election, with polls showing that about three in four
voters say they feel negatively about the country’s few behemoth businesses. Candidates are sparring over
how far to go to constrain them.

Samsung is infamous for elbowing into new industries, knocking out smaller businesses, limiting choices
for Korean consumers and sometimes colluding with fellow giants to fix prices while bullying those who
investigate.The controversial ownership structure of chaebols known as “cross-shareholding,” in which a
family concentrates its shares in a few core companies, then passes investment to other affiliates within
the group is also widely criticized . The arrangement allows families to control a broad range of
businesses, even those in which they hold few, if any, shares.
Despite all of the above criticisms it's the dream of every South korean to work at Samsung but only one
out of every twenty thousand applicants gets to live this dream.

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Coping With The Changes
Innovative Technological Upgradation
Samsung chose to invest heavily in technical
innovation and R&D. In order to have a competitive
advantage driven by innovation, Samsung had to
become a pioneer in developing new technology.
During the 90’s, Sony had an advantage in consumer-
electronics, but it was rooted in analog technology.
The digital world required new products and
consequently, the firm shifted substantial resources
into developing large-area LCDs, chipsets, and cell
phones. Fast-forward to the economic crisis of 2008-
2009, Samsung spent over 7 Billion dollars for nearly
6% of the unit’s revenue into research and
development, and at the time more than 25% of the
company’s workforce engaged in R&D.

A Pivotal Competitive & Marketing Strategy

The first decision in Samsung’s marketing
strategy was to develop new competitive
and promotional strategies. Mr. Yun
initiated a new competitive strategy with the
goal of developing and marketing superior
products while also building an image of
Samsung as a stylish, high-quality brand
worthy of a premium price. The objective
was to establish a unique position using
technical innovation while designing more
appeal to a younger generation, as well as
upscale customers around the world. Yun
argued that to continue to compete on price
would eventually be their downfall.

Product Development & Design

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Understanding that cutting-edge technology does not always guarantee market success, Samsung also
focused on product development and design. Their goal was to create products that deliver benefits that at
least some segment of consumers will consider to be worth the price. Since many product benefits may be
subjective – attractive styling, say, or a cool image, or maybe the quality of camera - new product
development at Samsung usually involves a team of designers who collaborate closely with the firm’s
engineers, manufacturing teams, and marketers.

Meeting With The Cultural Norms

The Chaebol is also trying to address shifting cultural values at home by curbing some of the excesses
hardwired into corporate Korea. Younger staff are no longer forced to stay, and the senior workers will
be careful not to upset their subordinates.

Samsung has long emphasised the need for creativity while hiring more foreign talent as it operates in
increasingly diverse markets. Along with relaxed rules on work hours, it stresses a "Work Smart"
philosophy to reduce unnecessary time spent at the office. While it's hoped a looser environment will help
stir new ideas, some insiders say progress is slow against what's often described as an entrenched culture
of rigid, top-down management. Under its "Creative Lab" program, employees can individually or in
teams take a year to develop an idea they come up with if it's deemed worthy of pursuit. Samsung says it
had some 14,000 ideas last year through this program and other company initiatives.

"Giving employees more autonomy can lead to loss of control, but this will in the long run benefit the
company by developing talent that can run the business from a global perspective. Samsung takes pride in
the creativity and diversity of its talented people and will constantly strive to create an environment where
they have the opportunity to grow," the company said. Employees and Samsung watchers say cultural
change is inevitable as a younger generation of Koreans increasingly demands more than just high wages.
In a survey this year by job portal Incruit, Korean Air Lines ranked as the country's most desirable
employer, snapping Samsung's 10-year run at the top. Incruit said Samsung's reputation for imposing a
heavy workload and limiting personal time jarred with a growing preference for work-life balance.

Economic Challenge In the Pandemic

An interesting divergence in the data starting early in the Covid-19 crisis provide clues as to how
Samsung and rivals like Apple Inc. and Huawei Technologies Co. should approach the rest of 2020.
While Samsung’s smartphone revenue fell a single-digit amount in the first quarter, shipments dropped by
19%, according to Bloomberg Intelligence. The discrepancy lies in squeezing out a higher average selling
price by driving high-end models. Apple and Huawei, on the other hand, saw prices and shipments
decline by a smaller scale. It seems that Samsung repeated this trick in the second quarter. Through the
rest of the year, regional differences in how the pandemic plays out is where adaptability will be more
important than pure size. In China, for example, the situation marginally improved in the second quarter,
with the scale of shipment declines narrowing from the prior period as the outbreak eased and life
returned to relative normalcy.

As the only smartphone brand with a strong presence in each major region, Samsung’s ability to keep
growing — or at least stem the slide — will depend on its ability to quickly shift its marketing and
distribution focus.

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Samsung’s need to shift strategy applies not only to geography, but sales channels and revenue models.
The company is considering a deal that would give Alphabet Inc.’s Google more access, such as
promoting Google’s digital assistant and Play Store on its devices, in return for revenue from the US
search engine giant.

Timeline of Major Events

Month and
Year Event type
date Details
Samsung ("three stars" in Korean) was founded
with 30,000 Won by Lee Byung-chul as a trading
company in Su-dong, near Daegu, Korea. With
forty employees, the company's major business is
1938 March 1 Creation
production and distribution of groceries within the
city. At the start, the business focused primarily on
trade export, selling dried Korean fish, vegetables,
and fruit to Manchuria and Beijing.
As the company begins to grow, Lee establishes
Samsung's office in Seoul. A sugar refinery would
1947 Expansion
be started soon and would succeed in a very short
span of time.

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 Samsung Moolsan was established (later Samsung
1951 Organization
Corporation).
After the Korean War, Lee launched profitable
1953 Expansion Cheil Sugar, followed by textile, banking and
insurance enterprises.
Cheil Industries was founded as an affiliate of
1954 Sub-Organization
Samsung.
Lee builds the largest woollen mill in Korea, located
1954
in the suburbs of Daegu city.
Samsung acquires Ankuk Fire % Marine
1958 Acquisition
Insurance.
1963 Acquisition Samsung acquires DongBang Life Insurance.
1966 Legal The Lee family is accused of smuggling.
Joong-Ang Development (today known as
1966 Sub-Organization
Samsung Everland) is established.
Samsung-Sanyo Electronics is established. The
partnership would lead to the production of
1969 Partnership inexpensive TVs, microwave ovens and other
consumer products for Western companies such
as Sears and General Electric.
Samsung-Sanyo starts the production of Black-
and-white TV (model P-3202). In the same year,
1970 Expansion
Samsung expanded the business in ship building,
petrochemicals and aircraft engines.
Samsung completes a table calculator factory and
1972 Facility
a TV factory.
1973 Product Samsung develops transistor black and white TVs.
Samsung launches Korea’s first frost-free
1974 February Product
refrigerator.
Samsung begins production of electric desk
1974 April Product
calculators for the first time in Korea.
1974 May Product Samsung launches first air conditioners.
1974 August 5 Organization Samsung Heavy Industries was founded.
Throughout the year, Samsung introduces 5
1975 Product
additional types of refrigerators.
Samsung-Sanyo Electronics is renamed Samsung
1975 March Organization
Electro-Mechanics.
Samsung releases the energy-efficient ‘High Cold’
1976 Product refrigerator, with 20% higher energy efficiency and
a longer lifespan.

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 Samsung Electro-Mechanics merges with
1977 March Organization
Samsung Electronics.
Samsung Electronics America (SEA) is
1978 July Organization
established.
Samsung Electronics reaches the landmark
1978 December Production
production of 5 million TVs.
Samsung established Suwon R&D Center, which
1979 Facility
opened in April 1980.
Samsung acquires telecommunications giant
Hanguk Jeonja Tongsin. This would be followed by
the production of telephones, fax machines, and
1980 Acquisition
switchboards with great success, thus creating the
base for their large-scale productions in the
following years.
1981 March 26 Organization Samsung's partnership program is organized.
Samsung opens a General Exhibition center at
1981 December 3
Suwon, South Korea.
International
1982 June 23
expansion Samsung opens a sales subsidiary in Germany.
Samsung Printing Solutions was founded, with the
1982 Sub-Organization purpose of exploring and delivering digital
revolution to the printing industry with solutions.
International Samsung builds a television assembly plant in
1982
expansion (facility) Portugal.
Samsung begins the production of personal
1983 Expansion
computers.
International Samsung builds a television assembly plant in New
1984
expansion (facility) York.
Samsung's production of color TVs reaches over 5
1984 March 31 Production
million units.
Samsung Semiconductor Telecommunications
1984 October 1 Technology develops a long wavelength single mode optical
fiber, a first in South Korea.
1984 December 4 Facility Samsung opens a complex in the United States.
Samsung establishes a microwave complex
1984 December 19 Facility
capable of manufacturing over 2 million units.
1984 December 31 Revenue Samsung sales reach one trillion Won.
Samsung SDS is established as a subsidiary of
1985 Sub-Organization Samsung group. It provides information technology
services.

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 Samsung Medison was founded. An affiliate of
1985 Sub-Organization Samsung Electronics, it manufactures medical
equipment.
International Samsung builds a television assembly plant in
1985
expansion (facility) Tokyo.
1985 April Technology Samsung develops 64 K SRAM.
Samsung begins massive production of 256K
1985 July DRAM. This would position the company as a
leader in semiconductor manufacturing.
Samsung is appointed as the official sponsor of the
1985 August 29
1986 Asian Games and 1988 Olympic Games.
Samsung develops integrated circuits for sound
1985 September Technology
multiplex TV.
1985 October Samsung's production of CDP (CD-100) begins.
Samsung produces its first millionth videocassette
1985 November 12
recorder.
International
1987
expansion (facility) Samsung builds facilities in the United Kingdom.
Lee Byung-chul passes away. Control of Samsung
1987 Personnel
is assumed by Lee's son, Lee Kun-hee.
Samsung Semiconductor and Telecommunications
merges with Samsung Electronics, with its core
1988 Organization
business focusing on home appliances,
telecommunications and semiconductors.
DongBang Life Insurance is renamed Samsung
1989 July Organization
Life Insurance.
Samsung attains world leadership in chip
1990 Achievement
production.
1993 Expansion Samsung ventures into the LCD industry.
Ankuk Fire % Marine Insurance is renamed
1993 October
Samsung Fire % Marine Insurance.
1994 Sub-Organization Samsung Motors is formed.
International
1996
expansion (facility) Samsung builds facilities in Austin, Texas.
Lee Kun-hee is involved in a corruption scandal,
1996 Crisis
getting a suspended sentence for bribery.
Samsung completes the development of flat-
screen televisions and starts the first mass
1998 Technology
production of digital TVs. The same year, Samsung
Motors delivered its first cars.

20
 Samsung Ventures was founded. Headquartered in
Seoul, it invests in startup companies focused on
1999 October 8 Sub-organization
semiconductors, IT, software, internet services,
biotechnology, and more.
Samsung SPH-1300 is released as an early
prototype of touch-screen slab-phone, with finger-
centric interface. At the time, reviewer Bruce Brown
2001 October Product
commented "The disadvantage of using a touch
screen as a phone dialer is that you can't dial by
feeling the buttons".
The first speech-recognition phone was developed
2005 Technology
by Samsung.
Samsung SGH-i607 BlackJack is released, with a
2006 November Product
BlackBerry-inspired design.
Samsung acquires Israel-based Genoa Color
Technologies, which develops color-based
2007 August 9 Acquisition
technologies for televisions, monitors, projectors,
and display devices.
Samsung acquires IP assets of Clairvoyante, Inc.,
an IP licensing company responsible for the
2008 March Acquisition development of PenTile subpixel rendering display
technology and associated gamut mapping
algorithms.
2008 June Product Samsung Instinct is released.
Samsung Omnia SCH-i910 is released. It contains
TouchWiz, Samsung's custom smartphone user
2008 December interface. With its rounded-slab design and
TouchWiz interface, some consider the Omnia to
be the first real ancestor of the Galaxy S4.
Lee Kun-hee becomes involved again in a
corruption and bribery scandal with influential
prosecutors, judges, and political figures in South
2008 Legal
Korea. Initially denying the allegations against him,
Kun-Hee would later plead guilty, being fined 110
billion Won and sentenced to three years in prison.
2010 July Product Samsung Vibrant is released.
2010 October Product Samsung Focus is released.
2011 January 19 Acquisition Samsung acquires Liquavista, which offers a type
of electronic display technology called
electrowetting used in e-readers, mobile phones
and media players and consumes just 10 percent
of the battery power of existing display

21
 technologies.
2011 May Product Samsung Galaxy S II is released.
2011 December Product Samsung Galaxy Nexus is released.
Samsung acquires spin-transfer torque random
access memory (STT-RAM) vendor Grandis Inc.
The acquired company is expected to merge into
2011 August 1 Acquisition Samsung R&D operations focused on developing
next-generation memory, where new
semiconductor materials and structures are
reviewed for their long-term commercial value.
Samsung acquires diagnostics company Nexus Dx
2011 November 15 Acquisition Inc., with the purpose of expanding into the market
of medical equipment.
Samsung acquires ZigZag Software, a
2011 December Acquisition
collaborative whiteboard for iPad and the web.
Samsung Electronics becomes the world's largest
2012 mobile phone maker by unit sales, overtaking
Nokia.
2012 February Product Samsung Galaxy Note is released.
Samsung acquires Palo Alto mobile entertainment
and music streaming startup mSpot, which lets
users stream movies to their phones and store
2012 May 9 Acquisition music online in the cloud. The acquisition is
expected to provide a cloud entertainment
experience of music, video and radio services for
users of Samsung devices.
Samsung acquires Swedish wireless chip company
Nanoradio, which develops ultra low power
2012 June 1 Acquisition
Wireless LAN chipsets for high-speed wireless
access in mobile phones.
Samsung Galaxy S III is released. It would become
one of the world's most popular smartphones. The
2012 July omnipresent blue posters would make "Galaxy"
synonymous with "Android smartphone" for
millions.
The Samsung Strategy and Innovation Center
SSIC is founded as a global organization within
2012 August 1 Sub-Organization
Samsung's Device Solutions division focused on
identifying and nurturing new technologies.
2012 December 15 Acquisition Samsung acquires Santa Clara, California-based
storage solutions firm NVELO, which develops
next-generation SSD storage solutions, and works

22
 to manage and optimize the use of solid state
drives within subsystems.
Samsung acquires Danvers, Massachusetts-based
medical imaging company NeuroLogica, as a
conglomerate’s plans to expand into the medical
2013 January 29 Acquisition
technology business. NeuroLogica is known for its
portable computed tomography (CT) scanners,
including BodyTom and CereTom.
Samsung acquired Israeli and New York City-
based streaming media and entertainment startup
2013 July 3 Acquisition Boxee for US$ 30 million, with the purpose to
expand Samsung's footprint in the smart TV
market.
Samsung acquired German lighting specialist
2013 August 9 Acquisition Novaled for US$ 347 million, in order to help it
meet the growing need for OLED displays.
Samsung acquires social-video startup Shelby.tv,
with aims at creating its own curated video service.
2014 June 5 Acquisition
After the acquisition, Shelby.tv was promptly shut
down.
Samsung acquired SmartThings, a fast-growing
home automation startup, for US$ 200 million.
2014 July 14 Acquisition SmartThings allows people to sync up their
connected gadgets onto a single smartphone app
and hardware hub.
Samsung acquires mobile cloud printing company
2014 September 2 Acquisition PrinterOn, in order to complement Samsung’s
mobile ecosystem.
Samsung acquires Proximal Data, a California-
based pioneer of server-side caching software with
2014 November 2 Acquisition
I/O intelligence that work within virtualized
systems.
Samsung acquires Brazilian printing solutions
2015 January 30 Acquisition
company Simpress.
Samsung acquires mobile payments firm LoopPay,
a mobile wallet solutions provider that turns
2015 February 18 Acquisition
existing magnetic stripe readers into secure,
contactless receivers.
2015 March 17 Acquisition Samsung acquired Logan, Utah-based
manufacturer of LED signs and displays YESCO
Electronics, with the purpose of reinforcing
Samsung's strategy of incorporating direct-view

23
 LED video display technology into its existing
product mix.
C-Lab Space is founded as an in-house startup
2016 May Sub-Organization
incubator program run by Samsung.
Mangoslab is founded as a spin-off company from
2016 Sub-organization Samsung Electronics that produces a sticky note
thermal printer.
Samsung acquires Canadian advertising
2016 June 16 Acquisition technology vendor AdGear, which specializes in
media buying and data management.
Samsung acquires Joyent, a San Francisco-based
public and private cloud provider. By acquiring
Joyent, Samsung can gradually migrate the
2016 June 16 Acquisition
infrastructure and data to its own cloud platform
which may offer better control and economies of
scale.
Samsung acquires luxury kitchen appliances brand
DACOR. The acquisition is part of Samsung's
2016 August 10 Acquisition
home appliance portfolio expansion into the luxury
market.
Samsung acquired next-gen artificial intelligence
assistant Viv, which developed an open AI platform
that gives third-party developers the power to use
2016 October 5 Acquisition
and build conversational assistants and integrate a
natural language-based interface into renowned
applications and services.
Samsung acquires Virginia-based startup Tachyon,
an enterprise mobile device configuration and
2016 October 27 Acquisition development software provider. The acquisition is
aimed at extending Samsung's enterprise mobile
device management.
Samsung acquired American Harman International
Industries for US$ 8 billion. Harman designs and
engineers connected products and solutions for
2016 November 14 Acquisition automakers, consumers, and enterprises
worldwide, including connected car systems, audio
and visual products, enterprise automation
solutions; and connected services
Samsung acquires Canada-based messaging
company NewNet Communication Technologies,
2016 November 15 Acquisition
which specializes in rich communications services
(RCS) infrastructure.

24
 Samsung acquires United States-based quantum
dot specialist QD Vision, in a strategic move to
2016 November 23 Acquisition
support the long-term vision of its display, TV and
possibly other businesses.
Samsung acquires home monitoring software
company Perch with the purpose of strengthening
their Internet of Things system. Perch is an IoT
2017 February 3 Acquisition
company that developed a smart home monitoring
platform which enables people to use their old
smartphones as security cameras.
Samsung acquires Swedish headphone
manufacturer Melaud, which develops headphones
2017 February 15 Acquisition
that can control the music based on the body
signals while exercising.
Samsung acquires New York-based mobile virtual
reality startup VRB For US$ 5.5 million. The startup
2017 June 16 Acquisition
has developed several apps to capture and view
360-degree content.
Samsung acquires Greek multilingual voice tech
2017 July 10 Acquisition startup Innoetics, with the purpose of bolstering its
Bixby voice assistant.
Within its semiconductor business called Foundry,
Samsung starts mass production of bitcoin mining
2018 January 31 Production
chips in partnership with an unidentified Chinese
mining company.

25
Looking Towards The Future
The transition to the era of data and intelligence is accelerating with the rise of new technologies and
businesses.Samsung Electronics and LG have come together to foster their future growth engines in 2021
as they unveiled New Year's goals amid the pandemic.

Samsung aims to actively cope with social and economic changes induced by the COVID-19 pandemic so
that 2021 can be the year that provides a platform for its future growth and also improve its corporate
social responsibility as it knows it needs to better develop sustainable management of the firm.

Samsung is currently focused on the smartwatches industry and says that the latest technology and
innovation efforts could be around the growing importance of smart device security.

Exhibits
Exhibit I- Samsung in Daegu, 1938.

Exhibit II- Largest electronics industry sectors

Industry Sector Annual Revenue Year

26
 Television broadcasting services $407,700,000,000 2017

Power electronics $216,000,000,000 2011

TFT liquid-crystal displays (TFT LCD) $141,000,000,000 2017

Video games $137,900,000,000 2018

Home video film industry $55,700,000,000 2018

Music streaming and music downloads $11,200,000,000 2018

Exhibit III- Founders

27
Exhibit IV-

Exhibit V-Samsung’s First Manufacturing Subsidiary (SEP) Established In

Portugal.

28
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