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Company Brief
LG Electronics

by Faulkner Staff

Copyright 2022, Faulkner Information Services. All Rights Reserved.

Docid: 00018996

Publication Date: 2201

Report Type: VENDOR

Preview

LG Electronics is a South Korean firm that operates as a major unit of the LG
Corporation. The company is a top provider of consumer electronics and home appliances with sales of more than
$56 billion, 74,000 employees, 119 subsidiaries, and a presence in more than 100 countries. LG runs four primary
businesses: Home Appliance & Air Solutions, Home Entertainment, Vehicle Component Solutions, and Business
Solutions. A fifth operation, its mobile phone business, was discontinued as of
July 2021. This brief examines LG’s
operations in greater detail.

Report Contents:

• Fast Facts
• History
• Key Executives
• Major Products
• Major Competitors
• Recent Activity

Fast Facts

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Name: LG Electronics
Headquarters
LG Twin Tower 128
Yeoui-daero, Yeongdeungpo-gu
Seoul,
South Korea
Phone: +82 (0) 2-3777-1114

Fax: +82 (0) 2-3777-3428
Web:
http://www.lg.com/
LG Group:
http://www.lgcorp.com/
Type: Consumer electronics, home appliances
Service Areas: Worldwide
Founded: 1958 (as Goldstar)
Stock: 066570 (KRX), LGLD (LSE)
Number of Employees: 75,000 (2020)

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History

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LG Electronics is a South Korean company founded in 1958 that is considered
a top provider of consumer electronics and home appliances. The company has 74,000
employees (2021) that work in 118 locations worldwide. It also controls 119 subsidiaries in more than 100
countries. LG’s main business domains include areas of operation in:

• Home Appliance & Air Solutions
• Home Entertainment
• Vehicle Component Solutions
• Business Solutions

The company’s regional operations are illustrated in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Regional Presence

Source: LG Electronics

LG traces its roots to
1947 when parent company Lucky (Lak Hui Chemical Industrial) was
founded. A separate company named Goldstar
produced Korea’s first radios in the following years. Lucky and Goldstar
merged in 1958, officially
becoming Lucky-Goldstar.
In 1974, the company went public, and its electronics exports
continued to grow. In the 1980s, Goldstar created its first European
sales subsidiary
as well as a joint production unit in Thailand. By 1993, the company
established a Chinese subsidiary in Huizhou and began marketing
operations in that country. The
company later shortened its name to the LG Group and made LG
Electronics an operating unit, which quickly acquired consumer
electronics
mogul Zenith.

By the late 2000s, LG Electronics made its presence known in the global
mobile phone sector, overtaking Motorola in 2008 to become the third largest
maker of mobile phones. The company began a reorganization to better facilitate growth in
2011, while
launching 4G LTE service products the same year. For the next several
years, LG continued to ramp up efforts to turn around and differentiate its
smartphone, TV, and appliance offerings amidst lagging economic recovery and
fierce competition in these major areas. For economic purposes, LG also consolidated its R&D operations
in local markets such as China and India while pursuing strategic alliances to
develop and launch products in global markets.

Faced with an “incredibly competitive mobile phone sector,” LG Electronics
announced in April 2021 that it would close its mobile phone unit, although the
company said it will continue to leverage its mobile expertise and develop
mobility-related technologies such as 6G to help further strengthen competitiveness
in other business areas.

LG’s vision for the 21st
century is to become “a worldwide leader in digital that ensures customer
satisfaction through innovative products and superior service.” To achieve this vision, LG has set high R&D goals to sustain its
leadership in consumer electronics and expand its presence in
such fields as electric vehicle components,
connected devices, smart homes, robotics, and artificial intelligence as well as
business-to-business solutions, platforms, and services.

Key Executives

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Major LG Electronics executives include:

• Chief Executive Officer: William Cho
• President: Bong Seok Kwon
• Executive Vice President: Doo Yong Bae
• President, Home Appliance & Air Solutions: Jae-cheol Lyu
• President, Home Entertainment: Hyoung-sei Park
• President, Vehicle Component Solutions: Eun Seok-hyun
• President, Business Solutions: Jang Ik-hwan
• Chief Technology Officer: Kim Byoung-hoon

Major Products

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LG Electronics is a leader in several consumer electronics sectors including flat-screen TVs, digital
displays, and appliances. Sales in South Korea, as well as currency conversions
from sales in other regions, have helped this sector to grow, reaching $56
billion in sales in 2020. Its main business
domains are listed in Table 1.

Major Competitors

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LG Electronics competes with several different
companies, primarily in the home electronics sector.
Some of its top competitors include:

• GE: http://www.ge.com/
• Panasonic: http://panasonic.net/
• Philips Electronics: http://www.philips.com/
• Samsung: https://www.samsung.com/us/
• Sony: http://www.sony.net/

Recent Activity

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LG Electronics regularly issues many different announcements each year. Some
of its more prominent news has included:

• January 2022 – Joins the IBM Quantum Network to advance industry applications of
  quantum computing, gaining access to IBM’s quantum computing systems as well as to IBM’s quantum
  expertise and Qiskit, IBM’s open-source quantum information software development kit.
• December – Signs an agreement to license all of its LTE standard essential patents
  to Tinno Mobile, the Chinese parent company of European smartphone brand Wiko; the license covers all
  Wiko-branded phones sold by Tinno Mobile worldwide … Unveils its first gaming laptop, the model 17G90Q,
  featuring a 17-inch IPS panel, 11th Gen Intel Tiger Lake H processor, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Max-Q graphics
  card, dual-channel memory, and a dual SSD setup.
• November – Chief Strategy Officer William Cho is named CEO of LG Electronics while
  maintaining his CSO function; in other personnel changes, Kim Byoung-hoon is named Chief Technology
  Officer, Jang Ik-hwan is promoted to president of the Business Solutions sector, and Eun Deok-hyun will
  lead the Vehicle Component Solutions Company … Announces that its next-generation In-Vehicle Infotainment
  (IVI) system will make its debut in the new Renault Mégane E-TECH Electric in 2022.
• September – Acquires Cybellum, a Tel Aviv-based vehicle cybersecurity risk
  assessment solution provider in a deal estimated at $240 million.
• August – Forms Silicon Valley-based innovation center LG NOVA to work with
  startup and entrepreneur communities on solutions that improve accessibility, mobility, usability,
  and connectivity as well as ideas and approaches for carbon reduction and renewable energy …
  Successfully demonstrated the transmission and reception of wireless 6G terahertz (THz) data over
  100 meters in an outdoor setting.
• July – Opens its new Cloud Call Center in the United States, promising to
  elevate the company’s rapid digital transformation while improving the quality and efficiency of
  its customer service; also announces plans to establish similar Cloud Call Centers in a dozen
  other countries including Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Italy, and Vietnam in 2021 and in
  its home market of South Korea in early 2022 … Creates joint venture with Magna International Inc.
  to manufacture electric motors, inverters, on-board chargers and related e-drive systems.
• June – Announces the election of Dr. Lee Ki-dong, principal research engineer
  at LG’s Research and Standards Lab as chair of the Applications Working Group of the Next G Alliance,
  an industry initiative of the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) to advance
  mobile technology leadership in 6G for the next decade and beyond in North America.
• April – Makes the strategic decision to exit the mobile phone
  arena effective July 2021 in order to focus resources on electric vehicle components, the Internet
  of Things and business-to-business growth sectors; pledges that all premium LG smartphones
  currently in use will receive up to three iterations of Android operating system updates from the
  year of purchase.
• March – Wins a patent infringement lawsuit against TCL Communication Technology Limited and two
  European affiliated entities in the Mannheim (Germany) Regional Court that found TCL infringed on
  claims in LG’s standard essential patent covering specific LTE technology … announces Alluto, a joint venture
  with Luxoft, a DXC Technology Company, to commercialize production-ready digital cockpit, in-vehicle infotainment,
  passenger-seat entertainment (PSE), and ride-hailing systems based on LG’s webOS
  Auto platform.
• January 2021 – Collaborates with Gen G Esports to further develop
  the esports international scene using LEG’s UltraGear gaming monitors …
  Partners with Google to bring Stadia to its webOS smart TV lineup … Added
  webOS 6.0 to its 2021 OLED, QNED Mini LED, NanoCell, and UHD smart TVs …
  Unveils new gram laptop and 2-in-1 models … Invests $80 million in
  Alphonso to bolster its smart TV lineup.

 

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