Samsung names Jay Y Lee executive chairman amid global economic downturn • TechCrunch

Samsung Electronics has appointed Jay Y. Lee as the executive chairman to direct the world’s most significant smartphone and memory chipmaker, two months following the heir received a presidential pardon that erased the 54-12 months-old’s criminal report. 

Very last calendar year, Lee was paroled from prison soon after serving 18 months in jail for bribing previous South Korean president Park Geun-hye. The parole prohibited Lee from work for five decades and restricted overseas travel. In August, Lee gained a unique presidential pardon, which authorized Lee to officially take part in the management, restoring his appropriate to function at Samsung and accelerating its determination-producing on major strategies from chipmaking to investment strategies.

Lee, who has been vice chairman of Samsung since 2012, experienced been anticipated to choose above the tech big soon after the dying of his father Kun-hee Lee, the late Samsung Team chairman, in 2020. 

The lengthy-predicted appointment arrives amid shrinking world demand for chips and smartphones and marketplace uncertainty driven by the economic downturn. “The Board cited the existing unsure world-wide company setting and the urgent will need for much better accountability and organization security in approving the suggestion,” Samsung mentioned in a assertion. 

South Korea’s greatest memory chip maker said nowadays its working financial gain for the third quarter tumbled 31.39% from the yr-ago interval to 10.85 trillion KRW ($7.7 billion). Earnings in its memory chip and the System significant-scale integration (LSI) firms dropped to 5.12 trillion KRW, from 10.07 trillion KRW a calendar year previously, owing to weak desire for buyer merchandise, cell phones and TVs, in accordance to the business. This is Samsung’s to start with yr-on-year drop in revenue due to the fact 2019.

Samsung claimed sales of 76.78 trillion KRW (~$54 billion) in the a few months ending September, symbolizing a 3.79% rise from the yr-back quarter.  

The organization expects requires for electronic products and chips to include to some extent in 2023 nevertheless macroeconomic uncertainties are probable to persist. “In the memory business enterprise, following a dampened 1st 50 percent, desire is envisioned to rebound centering on servers as facts centre installations resume,” the enterprise mentioned in its assertion. 

The downbeat earnings arrive practically three weeks immediately after the Biden administration announced sweeping new policies aimed at blocking China from getting obtain to superior chip goods. The constraints reduce exporting specific semiconductors and marketing devices using advanced systems to China-dependent chipmakers. 

Top world semiconductor makers, such as Samsung Electronics, TSMC, and SK Hynix have been granted one particular-12 months authorization to use U.S. technological know-how for marketing innovative semiconductor chips for supercomputers and synthetic intelligence to Chinese companies. SK Hynix, which competes with Samsung in the memory chip sector, mentioned Wednesday it programs to slash its funds expenditure in 2023 by more than 50 p.c soon after reporting a 60% fall in its profits in 3Q. 

Samsung sells NAND and DRAM chips utilized in laptops, smartphones and details storage. The tech behemoth claimed before this month it designs to extra than triple making advanced chips for high-overall performance personal computers, synthetic intelligence, 5G and 6G telco and automotive. Samsung aims to commence manufacturing 2-nanometer chips by 2025 and 1.4-nanometer chips by 2027. 

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