Samsung buys Harman for $8 billion

Samsung Electronics today announced that it has agreed to buy Harman International Industries for $112 per share in cash which amounts to a total equity value of around $8 billion. This acquisition will give Samsung a major presence in the rapidly growing market for connected technologies, particularly automotive electronics, which remains a strategic priority for Samsung. Harman leads the market in connected car solutions. Almost 65 percent of its reported sales during the 12 months ended September 30, 2016 are related to the automotive industry.

“HARMAN perfectly complements Samsung in terms of technologies, products and solutions, and joining forces is a natural extension of the automotive strategy we have been pursuing for some time,” said Oh-Hyun Kwon, Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Samsung Electronics. 

Harman has significant experience in designing and integrating sophisticated in-car technologies and it already has deep relationships with some of the largest car manufacturers in the world. Samsung says that this will create big growth opportunities for the company when combined with Samsung’s expertise in connected mobility, user experience, semiconductors, displays and its global distribution channels. Moreover, Samsung’s leading position in consumer electronics coupled with Harman’s brands and audio capabilities will provide improved customer benefits and elevate user experiences across Samsung’s entire portfolio of consumer and professional products.

This acquisition will provide Samsung with access to Harman’s 8,000 software designers and engineers who are working on unlocking the IoT market’s potential. The company will also get access to Harman’s leading brands and state-of-the-art audio systems including Harman Kardon, JBL, Mark Levinson, AKG, Lexicon, Revel and Infinity. Harman also licenses Bowers & Wilkins and Bang & Olufsen brands for automotive use. Samsung says that these brands will greatly improve the competitiveness of its mobile, display, virtual reality and wearable products as it will be able to provide a fully differentiated audio and visual experience to its customers.

Once this deal is closed, Harman is going to operate as a standalone Samsung subsidiary and will continue to be led by the existing team. Samsung says that it plans to retain Harman’s workforce, facilities, headquarters as well as all of its consumer and professional audio brands. This transaction is subject to approval by Harman’s shareholders and regulators, Samsung expects it to close by mid-2017.

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Samsung releases Gear Watch Designer Beta v1.2.1

Samsung’s smartwatches and hybrid fitness trackers provide users an option to use third-party watch faces. The company has even released a dedicated software named the Gear Watch Designer that lets designers build custom watch faces for these wearables. Now, Samsung has released a new beta version of the Gear Watch Designer (v1.2.1) with some bug fixes.

Apart from bug fixes, the version 1.2.1 of the Gear Watch Designer Beta adds a new low-bit color always-on mode that gets automatically activated if the high color always-on mode is not available. Samsung’s new Gear S3 smartwatch supports full-color always-on mode wherein the watch face is always shown in full color. The software is available for Windows and Mac operating systems. Here’s the complete changelog of the new version of the Gear Watch Designer Beta.

Samsung Gear Watch Designer Beta v1.2.1 Change Log

• Fixed adjust color property issue when happens turn on always on mode.
• Fixed image component angle issue that look is not same with preview if it is rotated.
• Fixed ‘Day of Year’ source issue that value is not correct in the preview.
• Fixed custom app id update issue in the Open app action property.
• Fixed Gear S issue that image component disappear when battery % becomes 100.
• Fixed text component issue that location is not same with preview if it is rotated.
• Fixed ‘Minutes in Hours’ select fail issue that happens in the High color always on mode.
• Added Low-bit color always-on mode analog watch automatically if High color always-on mode is turned on only

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Samsung’s market cap surges to $322 billion

Samsung Group’s combined market capitalization surged to 375.52 trillion won ($322 billion) last week after the stock market listing of its biotechnology division called Samsung BioLogics. With the listing of Samsung BioLogics on the Korea Composite Stock Price Index last Thursday, Samsung and its 15 listed divisions now account for 29.07 percent of the total market capitalization of all companies that are traded on South Korea’s main stock exchange.

For those who are unaware, the term market capitalization is used to denote the total market value of a company’s outstanding shares. The market cap is calculated by multiplying the number of all outstanding shares of a company with the current price of one share. It can often be wrongly deemed to be the actual worth of the company’s business. The market cap is normally used by the investment community to determine a company’s size and not the health of its business.

Investors appear to be very interested in the prospects of Samsung’s biotechnology division. Shares opened at 135,000 ($115) won and climbed up 6.67 percent on the first day of trading. They surged 12.15 percent on the second day of trading to close at 161,500 won ($138). Foreign investors are reportedly the most interested in buying shares of this division, data shows that they picked up 200 billion won worth of Samsung BioLogics shares.

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Analyst predicts Samsung smartphone sales in the US might decline due to protectionist threats

The United States is a very lucrative market for smartphone manufacturers and a local analyst in South Korea is predicting that Samsung might see its sales fall in the country due to protectionist threats from the president-elect Donald Trump. Different market analysis firms have different methods of calculating a company’s market share so it’s hard to pick just one and roll with it, however, Samsung was believed to account for approximately 26 percent of the smartphone market in the United States.

SK Securities analyst Park Hyoung-wo predicts that smartphone sales by the company’s top conglomerate could be hit hard if the incoming United States government decides to increase the tariff on technology products, including smartphones. “It seems unavoidable for Samsung,” he adds while mentioning that Samsung rival LG might face a similar problem as it could be hurt by protectionist initiatives as well.

There is obviously no confirmation at this point in time if drastic protectionist steps will be taken even if they might have been alluded to on the campaign trial. The threat is very real, though, and analysts are understandably concerned. We’ll only know for sure once we’re a few months or even a year or so into the new government’s tenure.

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Samsung heir apparent questioned over secret meeting with President Park as South Korea’s political scandal continues

Last week, the headquarters of Samsung Electronics in Seoul’s upscale Gangnam district was raided by prosecutors as they look into one of the biggest political scandals that South Korea has ever seen. The raid was conducted after reports in local media that Samsung has given millions of euro to a foundation run by a “shaman adviser” and a long-time personal friend of President Park Geun-hye. The Supreme Prosecutors’ Office has now hauled in some of the top business tycoons in the country over their alleged meetings with the president in connection with this scandal, of the tycoons summoned for a chat was Samsung heir apparent Lee Jae-yong who was reportedly questioned well into the night on November 13 over Samsung’s alleged involvement.

Local media reports suggest that the prosecution asked Lee about this closed-door meeting with President Park Geun-hye in late July last year. They apparently got done with the questioning around 2 am on November 14. Lee and other top business tycoons are said to have had private meetings with President Park before her close confidant Choi Soon-sil launched a couple of shady foundations.

The conglomerates are believed to have been pressured into giving money to these foundations which were established under the guise of supporting the sport and culture sectors of South Korea. A combined 80 billion won (US$68.60 million) was reportedly given by some of the top business concerns in the country to support the foundations. Most of the funds contributed by Samsung are said to have been used to buy equestrian fields, horses and equipment for Choi’s daughter Chung Yu-ra.

Samsung hasn’t really given its view on the matter following the raid on its headquarters and subsequent questioning of its newest board member, but the company has previously said that it’s going to “fully co-operate with the investigation.”

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Samsung patents holographic TV

Samsung appears to have multiple visions of what a TV of the future should be capable of. Not long after we saw one of the company’s patents detail a scrollable TV, we’re now seeing another patent revealing that Samsung has dreamt of a holographic TV that’s going to take the baton forward from conventional 3D TVs which weren’t really well received by customers. This new patent application by Samsung was published by the US Patent and Trademark Office earlier this month.

Samsung goes to great lengths in the patent to describe some of the issues with the conventional 3D TVs, explaining that most of them use a method called binocular parallax which makes it difficult to increase the number of viewpoints. It also makes the user feel more tired as there is a difference between the depth perceived by the brain and focus of the eyes. It then adds that holographic display methods which provide full parallax by making the depth perceived by the brain consistent with the focus of the eyes have gradually been put to use.

The patent goes into much detail to explain precisely what components will be required to power this holographic TV. It may even include an eye tracking unit to track the pupil location of the viewer. The TV will basically provide a glasses-free 3D experience by relying on holographic technology to make the images pop and provide an immersive viewing experience.

Samsung filed for this patent with the United States Patent and Trademark Office back in January this year, it has just now been published. It’s not necessary for all patented ideas to see the light of day so it can’t really be said for sure right now if Samsung really is going to come out with a holographic TV at some point in time.

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Samsung’s new program will give Tizen app developers up to $10,000

Samsung has launched the Tizen Mobile App Incentive Program as its first initiative to support the global Tizen developer community and expand the mobile app ecosystem for its nascent platform. Developers can submit their apps for an opportunity to win up to $10,000 or more. The Tizen Mobile App Incentive Program is going to run from February through October 2017. Developer who make apps such as gaming, lifestyle and social apps are eligible to apply.

“We’re excited to launch this new incentive program to help develop and bring the best of mobile apps to the Tizen community as well as provide customers with a better mobile experience,” said Woncheol Chai, VP of Global Product Management, Mobile Communications Business, Samsung Electronics.

Samsung is going to give $10,000 to each of the top 100 apps downloaded from the Tizen store and pre-registered to participate in this program each month. Developers can submit their new and existing apps in this program by visiting incentive.tizenstore.com, registrations being in January. The winners will be notified on the 10 of each month starting March 10, 2017.

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Samsung starts Nougat firmware development for the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge

The official Android 7.0 Nougat beta program for the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge is underway, and we are all hoping that Samsung will bring out the final update as quickly as it can. Many have wondered about how Samsung plans to proceed with the Nougat update for the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge, the two devices that brought about the company’s new direction in smartphones. Well, there is a possibility that the S6 lineup’s Nougat update might not be too far behind the S7′s, as Samsung has now started development of Nougat firmware for the S6 devices.

The initial Nougat firmware for the S6 lineup carries build number XXS5DPK7. Naturally, the build number will change on the final firmware that will roll out to S6 and S6 edge owners around the world. Also note that it can be a few months before work on the firmware development finishes, as there are a lot of things that need to be taken care of before an update can be rolled out to the masses. The S6 and S6 edge are unlikely to get the update before 2017; in fact, Samsung probably isn’t going to bring Android 7.0 to the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge before next year, either.

Nougat will bring a lot of changes and new features to Samsung’s devices, although it’s unclear if the company’s new UX will make its way to its 2015 flagships (it really should given the consistency Samsung has brought to its software across different devices since last year). Do check out our What’s New with Nougat series to see all the changes Nougat brings to the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge.

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WatchMaster and Romanson come up with new watch face for the Gear S3

WatchMaster is a team known for creating custom watch faces for smartwatches. They have produced innumerable watch faces in the past, especially for the Tizen platform and Samsung’s Gear S2 wearable. Now, in preparation for the Gear S3′s arrival, WatchMaster has teamed with Romanson to launch a new special Swiss-made watch face which will appeal to the old-school watch lovers.

This is unlike most watch faces you see on wearables. Instead of just using computer generated images for the watch face, the WatchMaker and Romanson team actually took down an actual watch and captured images of the innards to accommodate it within the watch face design. So it’s as authentic as it can get for a user.

The Pro subscription of the WatchMaster Romanson watch face will set you back by $16.99. This will entitle you to use all 11 of the new watch faces for one year. Pre-orders for the Gear S3 have already begun in the U.S. and other parts of the world.

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