History

1938–1970

Lee Byung-chul, founder of Samsung

In 1938, Lee Byung-chul (1910–1987) of a large landowning family in the Uiryeong county moved to
nearby Daegu city and founded Samsung Sanghoe (삼성상회, 三星商會). Samsung started out as a
small trading company with forty employees located in Su-dong (now Ingyo-dong).[19] It dealt in dried-
fish,[19] locally-grown groceries and noodles. The company prospered and Lee moved its head office
to Seoul in 1947. When the Korean War broke out, he was forced to leave Seoul. He started a sugar
refinery in Busan named Cheil Jedang. In 1954, Lee founded Cheil Mojik and built the plant in
Chimsan-dong, Daegu. It was the largest woollen mill ever in the country.[citation needed]
Samsung diversified into many different areas. Lee sought to establish Samsung as leader in a wide
range of industries. Samsung moved into lines of business such as insurance, securities and retail.
In 1947, Cho Hong-jai, the Hyosung group's founder, jointly invested in a new company called
Samsung Mulsan Gongsa, or the Samsung Trading Corporation, with the Samsung's founder Lee
Byung-chull. The trading firm grew to become the present-day Samsung C&T Corporation. After a
few years, Cho and Lee separated due to differences in management style. Cho wanted a 30 equity
share. Samsung Group was separated into Samsung Group and Hyosung Group, Hankook Tire and
other businesses.[20][21]
In the late 1960s, Samsung Group entered the electronics industry. It formed several electronics-
related divisions, such as Samsung Electronics Devices, Samsung Electro-Mechanics, Samsung
Corning and Samsung Semiconductor & Telecommunications, and made the facility in Suwon. Its
first product was a black-and-white television set.[citation needed]

1970–1990
The SPC-1000, introduced in 1982, was Samsung's first personal computer (Korean market only) and used an
audio cassette tape to load and save data – the floppy drive was optional[22]

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.[23] 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, ShinsegaeGroup, CJ Group and the Hansol Group.[24] 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.[25] 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".[25]
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.[26][27]

1990–2000
Samsung started to rise as an international corporation in the 1990s. Samsung's construction
branch was awarded contracts to build one of the two Petronas Towers in Malaysia, Taipei 101 in
Taiwan and the Burj Khalifa in United Arab Emirates.[28] In 1993, Lee Kun-hee sold off ten of
Samsung Group's subsidiaries, downsized the company, and merged other operations to
concentrate on three industries: electronics, engineering and chemicals. In 1996, the Samsung
Group reacquired the Sungkyunkwan University foundation.
Samsung became the world's largest producer of memory chips in 1992 and is the world's second-
largest chipmaker after Intel (see Worldwide Top 20 Semiconductor Market Share Ranking Year by
Year).[29] In 1995, it created its first liquid-crystal display screen. Ten years later, Samsung grew to be
the world's largest manufacturer of liquid-crystal display panels. Sony, which had not invested in
large-size TFT-LCDs, contacted Samsung to cooperate, and, in 2006, S-LCD was established as a
joint venture between Samsung and Sony in order to provide a stable supply of LCD panels for both
manufacturers. S-LCD was owned by Samsung (50% plus one share) and Sony (50% minus one
share) and operates its factories and facilities in Tangjung, South Korea. As of 26 December 2011, it
was announced that Samsung had acquired the stake of Sony in this joint venture.[30]
Compared to other major Korean companies, Samsung survived the 1997 Asian financial
crisis relatively unharmed. However, Samsung Motor was sold to Renault at a significant loss. As of
2010, Renault Samsung is 80.1 percent owned by Renault and 19.9 percent owned by Samsung.
Additionally, Samsung manufactured a range of aircraft from the 1980s to 1990s. The company was
founded in 1999 as Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI), the result of a merger between then three
domestic major aerospace divisions of Samsung Aerospace, Daewoo Heavy Industries and Hyundai
Space and Aircraft Company. However, Samsung still manufactures aircraft engines and gas
turbines.[31]

2000–present

The prominent Samsung sign in Times Square, New York City

In 2010, Samsung announced a ten-year growth strategy centered around five businesses.[32] One of
these businesses was to be focused on biopharmaceuticals, to which has
committed ₩2,100,000,000,000.[33]
In first quarter of 2012, Samsung Electronics became the world's largest mobile phone maker by unit
sales, overtaking Nokia, which had been the market leader since 1998.[34][35]
On 24 August 2012, nine American jurors ruled that Samsung Electronics 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.[36] Samsung decried the decision saying that the move could
harm innovation in the sector.[37] It also followed a South Korean ruling stating that both companies
were guilty of infringing on each other's intellectual property.[38] In first trading after the ruling,
Samsung shares on the Kospi index fell 7.7%, the largest fall since 24 October 2008, to
1,177,000 Korean won.[39] 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[40] which has been denied by the
court.[41]
In 2015, Samsung has been granted more U.S. patents than any other company - including IBM,
Google, Sony, Microsoft and Apple. The company received 7,679 utility patents through 11
December.[42]
On 2 August 2016, Samsung Electronics unveiled the Galaxy Note7 smartphone,[43] which went on
sale on 19 August 2016. However, in early September 2016, Samsung suspended sales of the
phone and announced an informal recall. This occurred after some units of the phones had batteries
with a defect that caused them to produce excessive heat, leading to fires and explosions. Samsung
replaced the recalled units of the phones with a new version; however, it was later discovered that
the new version of the Galaxy Note 7 also had the battery defect. Samsung recalled all Galaxy
Note7 smartphones worldwide on 10 October 2016, and permanently ended production of the phone
the following day.[44][45][46]