LG thinks about shutting down its smartphone business
After six years of losses, LG might finally call it quits.
On Wednesday, LG CEO Kwon Bong-seok sent a message to company staff saying LG's smartphone division has to change, The Korea Herald reported. And according to an unnamed LG official, this could mean withdrawal from the smartphone business, as well as selling or downsizing the company's mobile division.
“Since the competition in the global market for mobile devices is getting fiercer, it is about time for LG to make a cold judgment and the best choice," the official told the outlet.
You May Also Like
Bong-seok told the staff that, regardless of the choice LG makes regarding the smartphone division, there will be no layoffs.
An LG spokesperson confirmed the news to The Verge, though they did say that "nothing has been finalized" yet.
This comes at no surprise to anyone who read any of LG's earnings reports since 2014, which was the last time its smartphone division turned a profit.
In January 2020, Kwon Bong-seok promised the LG's mobile division will return to profitability by 2021. That hasn't happened; the mobile division has experienced considerable losses throughout the year.
Despite the poor financial performance, LG has launched a number of interesting products in the past decade, including the quirky, modular LG G5, the dual-screened LG G8X, and the swiveling LG Wing. The company recently announced a rollable smartphone, scheduled to launch sometime in 2021.
Stan is a Senior Editor at Mashable, where he has worked since 2007. He's got more battery-powered gadgets and band t-shirts than you. He writes about the next groundbreaking thing. Typically, this is a phone, a coin, or a car. His ultimate goal is to know something about everything.
