By Cho Jin-seo
Staff Reporter
Samsung Electronics is considering merging or selling some of its operations in an upcoming corporate restructuring program.
A company insider said Thursday that the firm is to merge its MP3 player division with its cell phone division, and its DVD production division with its TV division.
``The MP3 business has a limited growth potential because Apple is dominating the field,'' he said, requesting anonymity. ``The situation is similar with the DVD sector.''
The alleged plan is part of Samsung's massive reorganization scheme, which is being shaped at its top management. The company's public relation office said it will have to wait to confirm the report. It said it will soon announce the reorganization plan.
``The scale of restructuring will be bigger this year than before,'' said spokesman Lee Seung-han. ``There was a reshuffling of chiefs of our sub-divisions and promotions of executives. Their new roles will be defined later on.''
Samsung Electronics has reaped most of its profits from its memory chip, TV, mobile phone and display panel businesses. MP3 and DVD players also have considerable market shares but their earnings have been too small to impress the management and shareholders alike.
On Thursday, several U.K. news sites reported that Samsung could possibly pull out of the laptop market if it fails to gain over three times its current share of the worldwide laptop market.
The company promptly denied the report, saying ``Samsung has no intention of closing its Notebook division in 2011. We do however expect the market to become increasingly saturated and there to be increased price competitiveness,'' according to Techradar.com. The goal for the laptop division is to attain 5.7 percent of the global market, it said.
The company insider, however, said that it is reasonable to think that the management may not want to continue the laptop business. Samsung's Sens brand is the No. 1 seller in South Korea but it has little presence in other countries.
``The laptop division lacks competence in comparison to other divisions. The management may want to sell out the entire line,'' he said.
Amid expectations of restructuring, Samsung's share price reached its historic high of 764,000 won on Thursday and closed at 760,000 won on Friday.
The share value has been inclining since its chairman and CEO Lee Kun-hee announced his resignation late last month and even after another CEO Yun Jong-yong's announcement of retirement on Thursday.
indizio@koreatimes.co.kr