Samsung scales back LED lighting business
Samsung is downsizing its light emitting diode (LED) lighting business across the globe, and will keep the business on South Korean shores in the future.
As reported by Reuters, LED lighting was marked as a key growth area by the tech giant in 2010. At the time, Samsung believed the business would grow to generate 50 trillion won ($47.5 billion) in annual revenues by 2020.
However, these prospects have fallen short due to stiff competition and the rise of Chinese rivals. In an emailed statement, Samsung said:
"We will remain active in the LED industry through our LED component business."
LED lighting is used in a variety of products, including television panels, lamps, flashlights, vehicle headlights and backlight displays. Samsung says that while the business will be present only in South Korea in the future, the company plans to remain a competitor by focusing on display backlighting in consumer products, such as television sets.
While LED lighting may not be doing as well as Samsung hoped, all-flash storage is of keen interest to the electronics giant. Pure Storage, SolidFire, and NetApp have all received investments from or have a cooperative agreement in place with Samsung, and tapping the South Korean market is on the horizon for each company. Despite a failed attempt to acquire SanDisk in 2008, Samsung has invested in flash card maker Fusion-io, and purchased SSD caching software maker NVELO in 2012.
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