A Short History of LG

The LG Group is South Korea's third largest conglomerate, or chaebol, producing a range of products in three specific industries, spanning professional and consumer electronics to industrial and household chemicals, with one hundred and forty-nine subsidiaries operating in over eighty countries. The group is engaged in chemicals, electronics, and telecommunications and services. Today they employ thousands of people and their assets consists of a total of fifty-one companies, with nine in electronics, eight in chemicals, and thirty-four in telecommunications with locations all around the world.

Its original name was The Lucky Chemical Industrial Corporation, and was the first Korean company to enter the plastics industry in 1952. While expanding its plastics business, the company moved into electronics with a new brand name in 1958. In 1959, the company produced South Korea's first radio. For some time, electronics were produced under the label, while chemicals, especially household items like toothpaste and detergent, continued to be marketed under the brand. In1995, however, its electronics arm was renamed something completely different in order to better compete in Western markets. Recently, the company has associated its marketing slogan which has become well known. In January 2009 they became one of only a handful of companies to own a two-lettered domain name on the internet. Many companies simply can't use a two letter domain name because their company name isn't as easy to abbreviate as others.

Today their company is the world's second largest producer of television sets and the third largest manufacturer of mobile phones. Interestingly, while many smartphone makers are trying to diversify their software platforms and create handsets, they have decided to continue using the original operating systems for the foreseeable future so as to provide for custom-tailored devices. The company hasn't ruled out others, but expects the original operating system to be its primary platform for the vast majority of its models.

This strategy is an official one, designed to improve both companies' shares in their respective domains of the wider mobile market. The pact comes at an important time for both companies. In the past company mergers has been beneficial to both parties involved. The agreement would also create a joint research and development teams to focus on creating phones with powerful features available only through the tight integration between hardware and software (not so coincidentally rather like the other powerful smartphones on the market), along with joint marketing efforts at various price-points around the world.