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| Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong, left, shakes hands with U.S. President Joe Biden, who made his first visit to Korea after taking office, during a tour of Samsung Electronics' semiconductor factory in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province on May 20. / Yonhap |
By Kim Hyun-bin
Samsung Electronics has recruited a seasoned expert in corporate acquisition to spur its largely-stalled attempt to enter new businesses, according to industry officials Wednesday. The company recently hired Chung Seoung-taek, who previously worked at Qualcomm and other global tech giants, as the head of the new business taskforce with a mandate to find new growth engines abroad.
Samsung's recruitment of high-profile figures shows Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong's strong will to advance the group. On the way back from a business meetings in Europe in June, Lee said, "The first is technology, the second is technology, and the third is technology. In the midst of market changes and uncertainty, Samsung's job is to bring in good people."
Chung was appointed to head the new business TF starting this month. He graduated from the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Seoul National University and completed his master's and doctoral degrees at Stanford University.
Since then, Chung has worked in various fields within the U.S. information technology (IT) sector. He has a solid track record of working for global IT and consulting companies, such as Qualcomm, Deutsche Telecom, and McKinsey & Company.
He once served as the general president of MoboTap, a Silicon Valley startup in the U.S., which developed the mobile app 'Dolphin Browser'. The app has been used more than 50 million times worldwide.
He also has experience in starting a business in Silicon Valley. In 2012, he founded Human Best, an IT venture company. Samsung Electronics is believed to have recruited Chung as the head of the new business TF after seeing the experience and know-how that he has accumulated in the global IT industry.
The new business task force at Samsung Electronics, which will be led by Chung, is a new organization created in May under the direct control of Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Han Jong-hee. The industry sees this organization as being in charge of Samsung Electronics' large-scale corporate acquisitions. Therefore, Chung is highly likely to lead the task of searching for Samsung Electronics' acquisition candidates in the future.
"The new business task force is established to find new business opportunities, but it is not solely made to conduct M&As," a Samsung Electronics official said.
Samsung Electronics has not conducted a large-scale acquisition since it bought audio electronics company Harman in 2017. The company announced at its earnings presentation in January last year that there will be a significant level of corporate acquisitions within the next three years. Han said in January of this year, "good news about an M&A will come out soon."
However, some analysts have doubts that Samsung could successfully carry out a large-scale corporate acquisition in the near future.
"I view Samsung's M&A prospects poorly. It's been a few years since the company has hinted at conducting a largescale M&A, but nothing has been done. I don't think it's any different this time," Kim Yang-jae, an analyst at Daol Investment & Securities said. "The biggest problem why Samsung Electronics is failing in large-scale M&As is because companies like Samsung have smart people reviewing M&As, and other companies are well aware of it and once word gets out, they offer a higher price before Samsung can seal the deal. Also, some M&A opportunities were missed due to the absence of Vice Chairman Lee."
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