With Lee Jae-yong, Chairman of Samsung Electronics, being acquitted in the second trial of the unfair merger case, attention is focused on whether he will return to the front line of management. It is evaluated that Chairman Lee, who has been freed from legal risks after about nine years, has been put on the test bed for his management skills.
On the 3rd, the 13th Criminal Division of the Seoul High Court sentenced Chairman Lee to acquittal, who was indicted on charges of unfair merger between Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries. As a result, the trial risk that has been holding him back has been virtually resolved. Due to the unfair merger case trial that began in 2020, he attended a total of 96 trials for about four years. If combined with the Park Geun-hye government's influence-peddling case that started in 2016, he has been frequenting Seocho-dong, Seoul, where the prosecution and courts are located, for nearly nine years.
In the meantime, Samsung Electronics was engulfed in an unprecedented crisis. The memory semiconductor business, which is the mainstay of the company, is faced with the evaluation that the 'super gap' is gradually disappearing. It has hardly benefited from the artificial intelligence (AI) boom because it has lost the leadership in the foundry (consignment production of semiconductors) and high-bandwidth memory (HBM) businesses. Last year's operating profit (15 trillion won) of Samsung Electronics' semiconductor business was surpassed for the first time by SK Hynix.
Chairman Lee's direct feedback on the crisis has been hard to find. This attitude was interpreted as an intention to avoid creating any potential for political and judicial repercussions while undergoing trial. There was also an analysis that Samsung Electronics was unable to take drastic measures such as personnel reshuffle due to the owner's legal risks.
Whether he will return to the board of directors at the Samsung Electronics' shareholders' meeting next month is considered a touchstone to gauge his will for 'responsible management'. Chairman Lee is the only one among the heads of the four major groups who is an unregistered director of the board. "With this ruling as an opportunity, we hope that the defendant (Chairman Lee) will now be able to concentrate on his inherent work," said the legal team of Chairman Lee on the same day.
Park Joo-geun, CEO of Leaders Index, said, "Samsung has also used Chairman Lee's legal risks as an excuse for the crisis. With this ruling, the excuse has disappeared." "As Chairman Lee, the time has come to show his true management skills inside and outside the company."
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