Samsung confirms plans to spin off its loss-making LCD TV division-- with "Samsung Display Company Ltd" to start operations on April 1st 2012 (following shareholder approval).
"The spin-off will allow us to make quicker business decisions and respond to our clients' needs more swiftly," Executive LCD business VP Donggun Park says. The new TV making business will start with $6.6 billion in cash reserves. It might also merge with Samsung Mobile Display, the company working on OLED technology for both mobile and TV use.
On December 2011 the company bought the Sony stake (worth around $938.97M) in the S-LCD LCD panel joint venture.
As we all know, times are hard for the TV business-- some of the biggest TV endors (including Panasonic, Sony, Sharp and Philips) are recording record losses as consumer TV demand slows down to a crawl even as TV makers slash prices even further.
Go Samsung to Spin Off Unprofitable LCD Business (Bloomberg)
