Samsung Electronics is planning on sharing its record semiconductors profits with its partners, having announced a 15 billion won ($13.8 million) cooperation fund earlier this week, adding that its associates will receive approximately 50 billion won in incentives in the second half of 2017, with that payout amounting to a little over $46 million, or nearly 150 percent more than what Samsung’s partners received in the first six months of the year. The South Korean original equipment manufacturer had 138 partner businesses eligible for incentives in the previous period and that number is unlikely to see any significant changes in the second part of 2017. All of the incentives cited by Samsung also include bonuses paid to its own staff and executives but the majority of the funds are understood to be given to associate businesses supporting its operations that have been experiencing a massive performance spike in recent times.
As per the chaebol‘s latest consolidated financial report, its revenue in the third quarter of the year amounted to 62.05 trillion won, or approximately $55.5 billion. Samsung managed to generate around $13 billion of profit from that turnover, with its success largely being attributed to the company’s semiconductor division that’s been breaking a variety of performance records in recent quarters, having capitalized on the conglomerate’s previous investments approved while the company was still being led by its Chairman Lee Kun-hee who has reportedly been in a comatose state since mid-2014 after suffering a heart attack.
A number of industry analysts remain skeptical about Samsung’s ability to maintain its strong performance in the semiconductor segment in the long-term, attributing its recent success to a temporary demand spike for flash memory and similar products. With the recent incarceration of the tech giant’s de facto leader Jay Y. Lee, Samsung’s many divisions aren’t as coordinated as they used to be and no new investments of significant scope are expected to be made by the company in the near future. Samsung’s record acquisition of Harman International Industries that was concluded earlier this year was already greenlighted before Mr. Lee ended up facing charges of bribery and embezzlement of corporate funds, having later been sentenced to a five-year prison sentence for those transgressions that he’s currently in the process of appealing.