South Korea is a real hotbed for smartphones. You might think that China is the place to be when it comes to these pocket computers but, South Korea is where Samsung hail from and they’re not the only high-profile smartphone manufacturer in the Korean peninsula. Both LG and Pantech are manufacturers from South Korea as well, and while Pantech are more known for their budget handsets destined for AT&T, in Korea they make some solid smartphones that rival both Samsung and LG.
Today, Samsung and Pantech have made it official, that Samsung now own a 10% stake in Pantech, which they bought for a mere $47.6 Million. Before you start thinking that this is the start of Samsung’s march to complete and total world domination, this is more about a partnership between the two firms than anything else. Samsung and Pantech make a lot of the components that go into these smartphones. Samsung make their own processors (in some cases), memory, displays and more and so Pantech, too have something that Samsung needs as well. Pantech spent around $211 million with Samsung last year on components. The two of them already work together on semiconductor and display projects as well. Samsung released the following statement on the deal:
Samsung Electronics has agreed to acquire a 10-percent stake in Pantech, valued at approximately KRW 53 billion. The investment is aimed at solidifying our relationship with Pantech, a key component customer of Samsung. Samsung will have no involvement in Pantech’s business management in any way or form.
This sort of investment makes a lot of sense for a large company like Samsung and the infusion of cash should help Pantech deliver the goods that Samsung needs. If anything, it’s nice to see this sort of thing happening between two large smartphone manufactuers, these days it seems that all we hear about is lawsuit after lawsuit over rectangles and other such nonsense.
This isn’t the first company that Samsung has invested in recently, they recently bought a stake in Sharp for $112 Million, which gave them a 3% stake in the business, allowing them greater access to their technology. It seems that Samsung is putting their money to good use and getting very smart at how to do business on a global scale. Could this make Samsung even more unstoppable?
[Source: The Next Web]