In a report from Samsung on Wednesday, the company is merging their two main subsidiaries in the United States: Samsung Electronics America and Samsung Telecommunications America in an effort to “enhance efficiency and streamline its organization.” Beginning in January, the mobile phone branch and the branch that handles all other electronics will become one, and operate under the name Samsung Electronics America.
These changes were likely brought on thanks to successive quarters of poor financial results, mainly in the mobile division. After Samsung sold 40% less Galaxy S5 units than projected and countless top-level mobile executives lost their jobs, the company began planning a major revision to their mobile team. Samsung’s Media Solution Center, the branch that develops apps for Samsung phones, will be dissolved into other parts of the company for quicker decision making. What’s more, Samsung dropped its global smartphone market share from 35% to 24.7% this last year alone. Obviously something hasn’t been working out quite right for the company, so this is likely their attempt to fix that problem.
So, who is going to head the newly-reformed Samsung Electronics America? None other than Tim Baxter, the current president and COO of the mobile branch. Gregory Lee, the CEO of the U.S.-centric portion of Samsung Electronics America, is keeping his job, as well.
As for the end user, we’ve already heard rumors of Samsung “starting fresh” with the Galaxy S6, and maybe even launching a variant with a curved display. The company is also planning to narrow its product line, focusing less on quantity and more on quality. All of these changes are extremely drastic, and hopefully what’s needed to shake up the company.