InterDigital Inc (IDCC)

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From Skin Cream to Mobile Phones
LG Marks 60th Anniversary


By Cho Jin-seo
Staff Reporter

Founded as a tiny cosmetic maker in Pusan on January 5, 1947, LG Group celebrated its 60th anniversary Friday as the fourth-largest and probably most adored business group in South Korea.
LG Corp., the holding company of South Korea’s fourth-largest conglomerate, said yesterday that last year the group pulled in some 80 trillion won ($85.7 billion) in revenue, with $40 billion from exports. That is roughly 26,000 times its revenue in its inaugural year, when there were only 20 employees.

Now LG has about 140,000 employees _ some 80,000 in South Korea and 60,000 in other countries.

``It is a meaningful year that marks the 60th anniversary of LG,’’ said chairman Koo Bon-mu, grandson of founder Koo In-hoe. ``With bold challenges and passion, let’s make LG a great company that can last more than 100 years and one that is respected by people as the No. 1.’’

The history of LG Group mirrors the history of South Korean industry.

With initial capital of 3 million won, founder Koo established Lucky Chemical Industrial Corp. in Pusan in partnership with Huh Joon-koo. The cosmetic company expanded its business to plastics, hygiene and cleaning supplies in 1952, when there were widespread supply shortages in the midst of the Korean War.

In 1958, as the nation’s economy gradually stabilized, Koo founded GoldStar. A pioneer in the electronics industry, GoldStar produced South Korea’s first radio in 1959, its first electric fan in 1960, its first refrigerator in 1965 and its first black-and-white TV in 1966.





LG Electronics has had six decades of continuous growth. It is expecting last year’s sales to amount to 23 trillion won. It has a number of globally recognized products such as the Chocolate phone and the Time Machine TV.
Other than for its history of growth, LG gets credit for leading South Korea’s corporate culture.

Even though the general public sentiment in South Korea is not always favorable to family-owned conglomerates, LG has rarely received criticism for its corporate governance and there haven’t been ugly disputes within the founders’ families.

In 1957, when most firms in Korea were operated no better than mom-and-pop stores, LG first adopted an open recruiting system for college graduates. It was a Copernican idea in the industry, as firms until then generally had hired workers according to schools and family ties.

In 2003 LG again surprised South Koreans, this time by announcing its adoption of the holding company system. The decision was in a stark contrast with Samsung and Hyundai, which are still entangled in a web of questionable cross-shareholdings among dozens of affiliates.


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01-05-2007



Take care hand that fed you in good time and bad time. Hope they (LG) have a good business and prosper even we might not get extra money. Have a high morale. I will look into LG product more and more in the future. Without LG sign up last year. I don't know where IDCC stock price would be. I appreciate their running honest business.