Ten years ago, Samsung’s executives poured over numbers and set their 2010 sales goal at $140 billion — four times the amount in 2000. Sales will reach that level this year, according to the median estimate of 21 analysts — right on target. The company is aiming to increase revenue again — this time more than tripling it from 2009 to $400 billion by 2020.
Samsung Electronics has already taken giant steps from its early days as a copycat appliance manufacturer. Now, as a consumer electronics behemoth, it has expanded beyond South Korea and the nation’s industrial, conglomerate-run shipyards, steel mills and auto plants.
“Samsung today is in an incredible position to create the evolution of consumer electronics,” says Shaun Cochran, who heads Korean research at brokerage CLSA Asia-Pacific, which rates Samsung Electronics a “buy.” To be successful, Samsung — a company with a history of top-down managers and obedient employees — will need to shift strategy, a process for which it has few guideposts.
For the one-time imitator to become a pioneer, hitting the numbers will be just the beginning [Source 1] [Source 2].
Burger King agreed on Thursday to sell itself to the investment firm 3G Capital for about $4 billion, including the assumption of debt, marking the second time in eight years that the fast-food giant has taken itself private. The agreement on Thursday for Burger King Holdings to be acquired by a Brazilian-backed investment firm, like a deal two years ago for Anheuser-Busch that involved some of the same investors, is one of those emblematic transactions that seem to herald the emergence of a new global business player.
The growth of the Brazilian economy in recent years has created a whole new class of wealthy entrepreneurs who are looking for opportunities to invest their fortunes and are not daunted by the idea of trying their luck beyond Brazil’s borders. Traditionally, Brazilian business has been dominated by an often cautious elite based in São Paulo, the country’s industrial and financial hub. But the economic surge of the last decade has changed that.
One thing is clear, though: Brazil’s dominance in all phases of the global beef industry. The country is already the leading beef exporter and now, thanks to the Burger King deal on Thursday, it has another outlet to encourage consumption globally [Source].
Over the last two weeks Intel has bought the wireless business of Infineon for $1.4 billion and McAfee for $7.68 billion, as well as the cable modem business of Texas Instruments for an undisclosed price.
Paul Otellini, CEO of Intel, noted that more and more devices were connecting to the Internet, and said the wireless connectivity was a sector where the company saw “growth potential.” Furthermore, Intel CEO Paul Otellini lays out the rationale for this deal in a press release:
Intel’s goal is to expand its mobile and embedded product offerings to support additional customers and market segments, including smartphones, tablets, netbooks, notebooks, and embedded computing devices. Through this effort, Intel will pair WLS’s best-in-class cellular technology with its core strengths to enable the delivery of low-power, Intel-based platforms that combine its applications processor with an expanded portfolio of wireless options—bringing together Intel’s leadership in Wi-Fi and WiMAX with WLS’s leadership in 2G and 3G, and a combined path to accelerate 4G LTE.”
Source.
“The global list of top companies is being replaced by the likes of Apple, Google and Facebook,” says Choi Gee Sung, 59, who — in a partial nod to the recently relaxed dress code — is tieless in his navy-blue pinstriped suit and white shirt with light-blue stripes for his first interview since becoming chief executive officer in December. “Our job is to prepare the organization for the next generation so it can continue to evolve into a truly great company. We need to be on our toes.”
To be successful, Samsung — a company with a history of top-down managers and obedient employees — will need to shift strategy, a process for which it has few guideposts. “Samsung today is in an incredible position to create the evolution of consumer electronics,” says Shaun Cochran, who heads Korean research at brokerage CLSA Asia-Pacific, which rates Samsung Electronics a “buy.” “The problem is, in a place like Apple, it’s a culture of trying to be creative as a matter of who they are. At Samsung, the way of thinking has always been, “We can do it faster, better and cheaper [Source].”
The purchase of game maker Playdom may help Disney’s brands with the Facebook generation
Four years ago, Bob Iger, the chief executive officer of Walt Disney, tried to build a cell-phone business. Disney created a family-oriented mobile service that included a global positioning system so parents could track their kids. Too few consumers signed up, and the company killed the operation after 15 months. Disney Interactive, the division that ran the ill-fated cell service, is still unprofitable. It lost $55 million last quarter.
Iger retains his enthusiasm for digital business and has switched strategies to buying rather than building. He wants to acquire social games and other online services that come with established customers and talented creators—and can help sell Disney’s famous brands.
“You don’t get the kind of growth we want by building from the inside,” he says.
[Full Story]
Facebook is going to go beyond rolling out standalone applications for iPhones, Google Android devices or feature phones and start considering itself a platform for developers to distribute mobile apps with.
“Where we’re going from here is a platform strategy. We’re going away from a one-off app strategy,” said Erick Tseng in his first public appearance since joining Facebook as head of mobile products. Speaking at VentureBeat’s MobileBeat conference today, he said the company will start building out this effort over the next several months [Source].
The Bill Gates and Khosla Ventures dream team are swooping in once again to provide much-needed cash to a worthy sustainable startup. The pair recently injected millions into nuclear power startup TerraPower, and now they’re back again to invest $23.5 million in EcoMotors’s series B funding round.
EcoMotors builds a lightweight, high-efficiency, low-cost combustion engine that supposedly offer 50% greater fuel efficiency than similar conventional engines. The company’s Opposed Piston Opposed Cylinder (OPOC) engine can be used in everything from passenger vehicles to auxiliary power supplies–anywhere traditional gas and diesel-powered engines can be found.
A new Google search tool to allow people to search easily for air travel and book travel plans is now on the runway. Google said Thursday that it had agreed to acquire ITA Software, a 14-year-old company that makes software that organizes flight and pricing information, for $700 million in cash.
Given that about half of airline tickets are sold online these days, it’s perhaps no surprise that Google has just snapped up ITA Software in a deal worth some $700m. The search behemoth says it is getting its hands on ITA, which gathers and processes flight information such as seat pricing and availability, to make it easier for people to find quickly the flights they want at the very best prices [Source].
GE has a whole lot faith in its ecomagination initiative. So much faith, in fact, that the company is pumping $10 billion into the project’s R&D over the next 5 years–effectively doubling its investment from the past 5 years.
The reason is simple: ecomagination is a cash cow, generating $70 billion in revenue since its inception in 2005. GE believes it will generate $25 billion in 2010, up from $18 billion in 2009. Over the next 5 years, GE hopes that ecomagination revenue will grow at twice the rate of the company’s total revenue.
Ecomagination encompasses a broad set of projects. So far, ecomagination has spawned everything from low-energy digital mammography machines and aircraft engines to gas turbines and nuclear plants. There’s plenty more on the way, including a massive battery plant in New York, a $2 billion wind project in Oregon, and a series of high-end energy-efficient front-load washers and dryers set to be manufactured in Kentucky. And we can’t forget GE’s ambitious plan into integrate appliances (i.e. hot water heaters, microwaves, and oven ranges) with smart grid technology.
Apple is accelerating the rate of acquisitions as the company vies with Google for mobile technologies and talent. Since returning to Apple as CEO in 1997, Jobs has made 13 acquisitions, according to Bloomberg data. Of those, five happened in the past seven months alone.
“The pace has really picked up, there seems to be a strategic shift,” said Charlie Wolf, an analyst with Needham & Co. in New York. “It looks like there’s an acquisition frenzy going on between Google and Apple in the sense that there’s an increasing urgency on Apple’s part to stay even if not ahead of Google in the phone space and apps space.”
Patent filings may provide clues to potential targets. Apple recently sought patent protection for mobile purchasing and touch-screen technology. Even with the new attention to M&A, Apple will maintain its strategy of focusing on smaller companies rather than taking on the risks of integrating large ones into Apple’s culture.
With more than $23.1 billion in cash, Apple has plenty of money to keep purchasing small startups. Counting long-term investments that the company can “liquidate in a day,” Apple had $41.7 billion in cash at the end of the last quarter, Broadpoint’s Marshall said, In comparison, Google had about $26.5 billion, he said [Source 1] [Source 2].
Ten years ago, Samsung’s executives poured over numbers and set their 2010 sales goal at $140 billion — four times the amount in 2000. Sales will reach that level this year, according to the median estimate of 21 analysts — right on target. The company is aiming to increase revenue again — this time more than tripling it from 2009 to $400 billion by 2020.
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