Samsung Spins Off Its Display Business

redletterdave writes "Samsung Electronics announced Monday that it will spin off its LCD business division to launch a new entity, provisionally called Samsung Display Co., set to go live on April 1, 2012. The new business will launch with about $668 million in capital, but Samsung plans to invest about $5.8 billion in 2012 to develop better displays. The move, which now awaits shareholder approval, has been rumored for months since Samsung's LCD business announced operating losses of $666 million in 2011, citing sluggish TV sales. The company's spin-off display business may eventually merge with Samsung Mobile Display, which makes the company's organic light-emitting diode (OLED) panels that are currently in high demand."

Comments

As long as they keep up the quality

[JavaBear]

I am really not that concerned for the split.

Re:As long as they keep up the quality

[rtb61]

The losses will be paperwork losses, reflected in building up infrastructure to mass produce the panels upon very large basis.

The branch off is more indicative of Samsung having made a breakthrough in alternate panel construction, likely cheaper and capable of more readily producing larger screens.

Inevitable that would mean the new business shutting down the old business, not a very good business model hence the need to sell off the old business first.

No different to IBM selling of the hard disk drive business, with the break through in SSDs.

So big Samsung OLEDs in the not too distant future.

Resolution

[mehrotra.akash]

Are they investing in higher resolution?
Because without that, most of the market at the current price levels is saturated with "good enough" screens and wont see much of a point in upgrading
Affordable 1920*1200 screens at 22 inch, and 2560*1600 or 2560*1440 at 24inch or 27 inch will get atleast the monitor market moving again (and GPU market)

Re:Resolution

[tlhIngan]

Same here, except for mine being a 19" SB930. Same resolution, so higher DPI, so even better image.
Displays have gone downhill, resolution-wise, after LCDs became the norm. 1920x1080 is the standard for desktops now, and 1366x768 for 16:9 laptops, where old laptops were 1280x1024.

That's because HDTVs are really cheap. 1920x1080 displays re-use the same cheap video ICs used for 1080p TVs, and 1366x768 ones are the same for 720p+ displays. Because HDTVs sell by the millions, the display electronics are really cheap, and when your monitors are pushing "free" and sub-$100, it's what happens.

And yes, CRTs had this problem too - the crappy ass blurry-as-hell ones were what you got.

I love my CRT monitor more than my LCDs, and really wish that companies could go back to producing high end CRTs too. Samsung, alas, is unlikely to do so.

They still do. But you're looking at really expensive ones these days - they're now very niche products.

Displays are a commodity item. Hell, half os /. gets confused everytime Apple releases a 30" display, calling it overpriced at $1000 when you can pick up a 30" HDTV for under $200 (forgetting that the Dells and such with greater than 1080p resolutoin are also that high).

Very little profit is made from monitors - it's why if you want better than 720p or 1080p displays they cost way more - a 24" 1080p can be had for under $200, but a 24" 1920x1200 costs $400+. Of course, these displays are also better ones since there's less pricing pressure on them.

People want the cheap crap, so manufacturers deliver. It's why Apple only produces nicer displays at non-HDTV resolutions because there's money to be made that way, rather than fight with everyone else in the crowded 1080p/720p cutthroat market.

Anything to do with Apple?

[Compaqt]

Does this have anything to do with Apple?

I.e., Apple's suing Samsung, and vice versa. On the other hand, Samsung provides the iPad's displays.

So, by spinning off the display division, is the purpose to get on with the suing?

Business faux pas

[LordStormes]

No company should EVER do anything important on April 1.

It's like DRAM all over again.

[alexander_686]

Now a commodity product with
      High Capital Costs
      High Fixed Costs
      In a market with over capacity.

This is not going to be a fun line of business for the next 10 years.

Re:It's like DRAM all over again.

[UnknowingFool]

Unfortunately not all content is 1080p these days. If anything the next step will be 4k resolution which will be more likely for projectors IMO. The TV manufacturers tried that upgrade gimmick with 3D and they haven't made much headway.