Samsung links to Japanese rivals

Samsung Electronics Co. has formed some more alliances with rival electronics companies. Samsung announced yesterday that it and Toshiba Corp. would integrate their optical disk drive businesses. Samsung will take a minority 49-percent position in the new joint venture. The new firm will develop optical disk drive products such as CD-ROM, CD-RW and DVD-ROM units and market them independently. Manufacturing, however, will be done in the existing factories of Samsung and Toshiba at least for the near future. Samsung said it estimated that the joint venture would grab 22 percent of the world market and be the second largest in the industry. “We can get synergy by combining the two firms,” said Lee Yoon-woo, the president of the semiconductor business division at Samsung. “The joint venture will be more competent in the market.” According to IDC, a global market research firm, sales of optical disk drives globally will be 200 million this year and increase to 250 million in 2006. Samsung also confirmed yesterday it had agreed with Sony Corp. for a joint venture in liquid crystal display screens, perhaps this year. An official at Samsung said the firm has considered “LG Philips LCD” joint-venture style: Sony is likely to invest in Samsung’s LCD operations and Samsung provide the production lines. But he said the partnership might be limited to a few production lines, not the entire LCD product line. by Kim Chang-gyu