News & Analysis
Comment
yalanand
I was not aware about the fact that "OLED has a shorter operational life than ...
Nazia Gadhia
I agree with Terry.
Samsung drops LCD business
Peter Clarke
2/20/2012 10:27 AM EST
LONDON – The board of directors of South Korean electronics giant Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. has approved a plan to spin-off its LCD business. The plan is expected to receive shareholder approval at a meeting scheduled for March 16.
As a result the LCD business will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics with effect from April 1, 2012. Samsung will then consider various restructuring measures including a merger with Samsung Mobile Display and S-LCD Corp., Samsung said.
It is expected that the LCD business will attempt to focus on particular niche applications while OLED displays within Samsung will be used for the mass market of consumer applications.
OLED is an emissive display that works without a backlight. It has a wider viewing angle that LCD and can be thinner and lighter than LCD. Until recently LCD maturity meant it had cost advantages at larger sizes and OLED has a shorter operational life than LCD.
In a statement Samsung said: "Currently, the display market is undergoing rapid changes with OLED panels expected to fast replace LCD panels to become the mainstream. Amid this structural change of the display industry, adopting measures for change and innovation, including business restructuring, are essential to improve our competiveness for our display business."
Samsung did not indicate how many employees would be impacted by the change. Samsung said that, in principle, the new [subsidiary] corporation will pick up all employment contracts and relevant legal responsibilities including severance pay, pertaining to all the current employees.
Related links and articles:
Panasonic predicts loss of $10 billion for fiscal year
Qualcomm buys MEMS display startup, reportedly for $175 million
Samsung plans $41 billion logic, OLED investment spree
Holst, IMEC work on flexible OLED displays
LG Display to demo 55-in OLED TV at CES 2012
|
|
|
|
|
Navigate to related information
DrQuine
2/20/2012 10:49 PM EST
Is Samsung "dropping" the LCD business or are they spinning off a free standing mature business while they concentrate on the R&D necessary to bring OLED technology to market? Sometimes the market value of mature and emerging businesses are greater when the two are split into separate entities that appeal to different kinds of investors.
Sign in to Reply
peter.clarke
2/21/2012 5:29 AM EST
I understand that Samsung LCD business made a loss of more than $600 million in 2011.
The form of words around "restructuring" suggests that Samsung does not see a big future for LCD displays.
One problem is that if you dont have economies of scale for consumer applications then LCD displays for other applications, let's say in industrial or military, become expensive. However, they may show superior product life to OLED and be desirable in those niches.
Sign in to Reply
GREAT-Terry
2/21/2012 12:54 AM EST
This is a big change, especially LCD business is so large now. Spinning off the LCD business while putting more effort on OLED looks a quite positive message to investors and consumers that the era of OLED is coming.
Sign in to Reply
Nazia Gadhia
2/22/2012 10:38 AM EST
I agree with Terry.
Sign in to Reply
yalanand
3/5/2012 5:14 AM EST
I was not aware about the fact that "OLED has a shorter operational life than LCD". Now that Samsung has dropped its LCD business does it mean that the company has found a way to increase the operational life of OLED ? Will the shorter operational life of OLED impact the customers ?
Sign in to Reply