Samsung Unloads One Kind of Semiconductor Business

Samsung Electronics decided to sell its semiconductor operations used in the electric power business to Fairchild, a U.S.-based semiconductor manufacturing company. Samsung and Fairchild signed a letter of agreement on December 22.
Fairchild will maintain Samsung's entire work force, its distribution network, outsourcing line, and cooperative relationships with other companies.
Semiconductors used in electric power are a type of non-memory semiconductor which supplies or cuts power to electronic equipment.
The total sales of this business reached 420 billion won with a net profit of 19.6 billion won. However, Samsung determined to sell this business to better concentrate on its system non-memory semiconductor business including semiconductors for communications and alpha chips (the central processing unit of a computer).
Jin Dae Je, the chairman of Samsung Electronics said, 'We plan to increase the weight of this business from our current 30 percent to 80 percent in 2001.'