Samsung M&A AI, IoT Enterprise Actively Deploy Software Ecology

Samsung Electronics (Samsung Electronics) has recently launched a number of foreign companies to purchase, it seems to start a new wave of business restructuring, the focus of business is no longer limited to the final product, hardware and B2C business such as TV or smart phones, gradually Components, solutions, B2B, software, etc. are oriented for expansion.

Not only that, Samsung seems to want to announce to the industry that as long as it can improve the market competitiveness, it will be more willing to invest more money, and the strategic model of heavy purchases and foreign players is different.

After Li Zaijun, the vice president, took over the heavy burden of business in May 2014, “selection and concentration” has always been the philosophy pursued by Li Zaiyu. At the end of October 2016, Li Zaiyu officially became a director of the company and his operating system was further consolidated.

The industry believes that the previous sale of non-main business by Samsung is a prelude to Li Zaijun's layout of new careers in the future. Now, the restructuring of the business structure initiated by mergers and acquisitions has officially started.

According to the Korean media daily economic report, Samsung previously sold the chemical industry and military defense products business, and then Samsung products (Samsung C&T) merged with Cheil Industries, and electronics and finance became the two major groups of the Samsung Group. Business spindle.

According to data released by Samsung in the third quarter, the cash assets amounted to 33 trillion won (about 28 billion US dollars); Samsung has recently started to use this fund to actively engage in overseas mergers and acquisitions.

The report pointed out that the primary consideration for Samsung's investment in the early years was to acquire foreign production bases, and the field was mostly concentrated in the semiconductor and home appliance business. However, since Samsung acquired the Internet of Things (IoT) platform operator SmartThings in August 2014, the field has become more diverse and no longer focuses on the development of final products.

In October 2016, Samsung announced the acquisition of Vivi Labs, an artificial intelligence (AI) platform company, which said it will gain competitiveness in the human-machine interface field. In November, it announced the acquisition of Harman and RCS technology company NewNet Canada. .

Sun Yingquan, chief executive of Samsung Electronics Strategy Innovation Center, responsible for Harman's acquisition, said that he would like to work with Harman for three weeks to provide a better user experience in autonomous driving and connected car technology. It seems that Samsung only intends to develop software decent and will not directly invest in automobile manufacturing.

As for the reason for the acquisition of NewNet Canada, it is reported that in early 2016, Google said it will actively support RCS. Because if RCS becomes the basic function of the Android system smart phone, and with the cooperation of telecom operators, it is expected to form a new industrial chain in the future.

In any case, Samsung decided to spend $8 billion to buy Harman, not only to become a topic in the industry, but also to inject vitality into Samsung, sweeping away the haze caused by the Galaxy Note 7 smart phone event; the industry is more predicting that Samsung will be at the end of 2015 The established automotive components division should expand its unit size in 2017.