Ex-Samsung Chairman Still Shakes Conglomerate

The ex-head of South Korea’s largest conglomerate apparently isn’t satisfied with how its affiliates are doing these days.

Samsung Group’s former Chairman Lee Kun-hee recently grumbled to one of his Samsung confidants that “Samsung is not like Samsung these days,” Hankyung Daily reported Saturday.

The confidant, a current Samsung senior executive, told the newspaper that “The ex-chairman is greatly dissatisfied with the current Samsung management.”

Lee Kun-hee stepped down in April last year amid a slush fund scandal, but he still remains the largest stakeholder of the group and pays keen attention to the group’s operation. Samsung’s reshuffle Friday of its key executive posts reportedly also reflects the “will of the ex-chairman,” according to the newspaper.

Samsung’s business performance last year reportedly didn’t meet Lee’s expectation, particularly such sectors as semiconductors, displays and digital cameras.