Who Owns Samsung?
Jamie Spencer Eric Geier
Samsung is a huge conglomerate that owns many different businesses. It is headquartered in South Korea and was founded by Lee Byung-chul in 1938.
Practically Networked
Samsung is a huge conglomerate that owns many different businesses. It is headquartered in South Korea and was founded by Lee Byung-chul in 1938.

Over the years, Samsung has grown to become one of the largest companies in the world. In this blog post, we will take a look at some of the different businesses that Samsung owns.

Samsung Group is a multinational conglomerate company with various interests and subsidiaries, headquartered in South Korea.

The Samsung Electronics subsidiary produces some of the most popular consumer electronics on the market today, comprising over 70% of total Samsung revenue. It is made up of over 80 affiliate companies that make up the Samsung Brand.

Samsung Group is a “chaebol” – a wealthy and influential South Korean industrial conglomerate controlled by an individual or family.

Samsung Group is now run by a family, the Lee Family.

Lee Byung-chul was the founder of Samsung. He was born in South Korea in 1910. After graduating from high school, he worked as a clerk for a Japanese trading company. In 1938, he founded Samsung as a small trading company.

Samsung was not always the leading producer of quality goods that it is today. Mr. Lee Byung-Chull first established it as a grocery trading store, where he traded goods produced within Korea. Samsung exported things like noodles to China and its neighbours.

After that, Korea went to war, destroying its economy. Lee sought to aid the country’s recovery by entering the textile industry. He built a huge woolen mill.

To assist large national corporations like Samsung restore their country, the government implemented protectionist measures to help them grow.

Samsung benefited from protective government regulations and inexpensive financing as a result of its changes. In the 1970s, Samsung expanded to include the whole textile manufacturing process as a result of these adjustments.

The company could process raw materials to create end products. As the business expanded, it focused on industrialization.

Over the years, Samsung grew to become one of the largest companies in the world. Lee Byung-chul passed away in 1987.

Samsung was taken over by Lee Kun-Hee, the son of Lee Byung-Chull, in 1987 after his father’s death. The company was separated into five business groups:

Samsung Group

Shinsegae Group

CJ Group

Hansol Group

Joongang Group

Thanks to Lee Kun-Hee’s excellent leadership, Samsung Group became a top electronics company in the world.

Lee Kun-Hee suffered a heart attack in 2014 and was in a coma for nearly six years before he passed away in 2020.

His son, Lee Jae-Yong, took on the role of leader for Samsung Group.

This ownership structure is complicated by design – it is intended to give the Samsung family maximum control over the Samsung Group.

Even though the Lee family only owns a small percentage of shares, they have maintained control over their companies.

Samsung hit its stride in the early 2000s with the release of the Galaxy smartphone series. The phones became a favorite for millions of customers, making them the most bought smartphones globally.

Since 2006, the company has been leading in manufacturing and selling televisions. It also expanded its Samsung Galaxy series in 2010 by developing tablet computers known as Galaxy Tab.

Samsung Business Units and Companies

There are over 80 different affiliate companies that make up Samsung Group, but they can all be categorized into one of four main business units:

Electronics

Machinery and Heavy Industries

Financial Services

Services & Others

Samsung Group’s revenue will reach $244.3 billion by 2022, according to Forbes’ 2018 Korean Transaction Rankings.

Samsung Group’s assets are projected to be worth $358.9 billion, with profits of $34.3 billion in 2022. The organization has over 100,000 employees!

Electronics

Most people know Samsung for their consumer electronics, but they also make the small components that power many of the world’s most popular technologies – from the PC and mobile phone parts, to green batteries and IT solutions.

Samsung Electronics

Samsung Display

Samsung SDI

Samsung Electro-Mechanics

Samsung SDS

Samsung Corning Advanced Glass

Machinery & Heavy Industries

The Machinery & Heavy Industries division tackles a wide variety of projects, such as shipbuilding and engineering/construction, wind power generation, and control systems for electricity..

Samsung Heavy Industries

Samsung C&T Engineering Construction Group

Samsung Engineering

Financial Services

Samsung’s financial services companies, serving customers in Korea, include insurance, investments and credit card businesses.

Samsung Life Insurance

Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance

Samsung Card

Samsung Securities

Samsung Asset Management

Samsung Venture Investment

Services & Others

Some of Samsung’s other affiliates are professional services companies, textile manufacturers, and businesses that serve industries like hospitality and tourism.

Samsung C&T Trading & Investment Group

The Shilla Hotels & Resorts

Cheil Worldwide

S-1 Corporation

Samsung Economic Research Institute

Samsung Medical Center

Samsung Biologics

Samsung Bioepis

Samsung Welstory

Samsung Fashion

Samsung Resort

Summary

Samsung is part of the Samsung Group, which is run by the Lee family. The entire Samsung Group’s ownership structure is complicated, with circulars between affiliates.

The chairman and his family maintain significant control over the group by owning key shares in Samsung Everland, Samsung Life, Samsung C&T and Electronics.

The intricate nature of this ownership is intentional; it has allowed the Lee family to maintain control over Samsung while owning just a minor stake in the firm.