By Joyce Lee
SEOUL (Reuters) – Samsung Electronics Co Ltd said on Tuesday it will merge its mobile and consumer electronics divisions, as it focuses on growing its logic chip business.
The sweeping move is the latest sign of change at the world’s largest memory chip and smartphone maker, after Vice Chairman Jay Y. Lee was paroled in August from a bribery conviction.
The head of visual display business, Han Jong-hee, was promoted to vice chairman and co-CEO, and will lead the newly merged division spanning mobile and consumer electronics.
Kyung Kye-hyun, CEO of Samsung Electro-Mechanics, was named co-CEO of Samsung Electronics and will lead the chip and components division.
Samsung Group is focusing on areas such as semiconductors, artificial intelligence, robotics and biopharmaceuticals, and plans to invest 240 trillion won ($206 billion) in these fields in the next three years.
Group flagship Samsung Electronics is aiming to overtake TSMC to become No. 1 in chip contract manufacturing by 2030.
(Reporting by Joyce Lee; Editing by Richard Pullin and Stephen Coates)
