14 DAY TRIAL // Samsung Electronics has showed a drop in profit rates for this year's second quarter, which has made the company somewhat vulnerable. As if this wasn't bad enough news, the South Korean government is planning to take over Samsung's division in this country.
"58 financially healthy companies in which foreign shareholders held a bigger stake than the largest shareholder are exposed to the possibility of hostile mergers and acquisitions" said Joo-tae Kim, from the corporate policy department of the Federation of Korean Industries, in a report published this week.
The Korean division of Samsung Electronics is one of the most profitable. Still, it is being run mostly by foreign companies which hold large stakes in stocks. There is a high chance that renowned US corporate raiders Carl Icahn and Warren Lichtenstein will win at least one KT&G board seat, although local incumbents are doing their best to stop this from happening.
After the government's action to enforce existing regulations, the voting rights of Samsung Everland reduced from 25 percent down to only five percent. Losing votes in the company's management is a risky thing to happen, especially at this point, when it sits on rather shaky grounds.
Samsung is currently the second world leader in mobile technology production. Carl Icahn is a 71 year-old New York native that has made an attempt to take over Motorola more than 20 years ago, although he eventually failed in doing so at that time.
Samsung Electronics hopes for reaching the high profit of USD 60 billion this year from sales of mobile phones, memory chips and flat panels displays, only in the mobile technology area. Aside from this, they also hold an important market share with their sales of other home entertainment and IT products, such as TV sets and LCD monitors.