The Samsung Sandwich
The Korean giant pumped billions of dollars into China and came to dominate its smartphone market. Now, it’s closing factories. What happened? By Geoffrey CainThe
The Korean giant pumped billions of dollars into China and came to dominate its smartphone market. Now, it’s closing factories. What happened? By Geoffrey CainThe
This story is part of Forbes’ coverage of Asia’s 50 Richest Families 2017. “Lee Kun-hee, the chairman of Samsung, was a master of careful, cautious and shrewd decision-making,” says Geoffrey Cain, writing a book about the empire.
By Donald Kirk
Forbes
Nov 14, 2017
SEOUL, South Korea — South Koreans assumed that Lee Kun-hee was the equivalent of royalty, an untouchable oligarch at the helm of one of the world’s largest companies, the Samsung Group.
By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World
Dec 18, 2012
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For years, Tim Cook insisted Apple could change China from the inside. Instead, China changed Apple.
The latest evidence? Apple spent billions developing cutting-edge electric vehicle battery technology with Chinese automaker BYD, only to watch its innovations become the cornerstone of BYD’s rise to global electric vehicle dominance. Apple walked away with nothing. China walked away with everything.
This isn’t just another story about corporate research and development gone wrong. It’s a cautionary tale about how even America’s most valuable company has become trapped in China’s web of technological control — and how that web is about to tighten even further.