Samsung Spinning Off LCD Unit, Focusing On OLEDs

Samsung announced today that, after a vote from the company’s board of directors, it plans to spin off its LCD unit and launching it under a new company, ‘Samsung Display’, by April 1.

Shareholders haven’t actually approved the move, however, but Samsung isn’t likely to have the move denied considering that last year Samsung reported a nearly $900 million loss for the company’s LCD division.

In addition to cutting back on losses, Samsung’s move aims to focus the company on OLED televisions instead, which it considers to be much more important moving forward.

“Currently, the display market is undergoing rapid changes with OLED panels expected to fast replace LCD panels to become the mainstream,” Samsung said in a statement. “Amid this structural change of the display industry, adopting measures for change and innovation, including business restructuring, are essential to improve our competitiveness for our display business.”

Donggun Park, executive vice president and head of Samsung’s LCD business, added:

“The spin-off will allow us to make quicker business decisions and respond to our clients’ needs more swiftly. Through enhancements in business competitiveness, we will continue to provide superior products and services for the market.”