Samsung Electronics officially spun off its display-making arm back in February. That spinoff is now complete with Samsung Display holding its inauguration ceremony yesterday. The new company says that operations will begin April 3 once its incorporation registration is complete.
When Samsung Electronics' LCD business was under the main corporate umbrella, it was led by Executive Vice President Donggun Park. Park is now going to act as the CEO of Samsung Display. Under his leadership at Samsung Electronics, the company reported $20 billion in annual revenue for 2011.
Samsung Display reports that it is the largest display manufacturer in the world based on the 20,000 employees and five production facilities that it owns.
Park said at the inauguration ceremony, “We will make Samsung Display a well-respected company through continuous efforts to supply a wide variety of customized products that provide great value to our customers.” He added, “By continually staying one step ahead of our competitors, we can make our company the very best in the display market.”
Samsung's display arm had some serious issues over the years. Problems with its LCD TVs that lead to failures due to bulging capacitors resulted in Samsung having to pay up to $300 for each customer covered in the settlement. The LCD business has been hard-pressed to turn a profit with an overabundance of panels on the LCD market and falling shipments.
Poor earnings contributed to Sony leaving a joint operation that it owned with Samsung in 2011.
LCD companies are expected to fare better in 2012 with increased profits, even though shipments are predicted to go down. The big growth segment in the display space is expected to be OLED sets moving forward.
