Samsung Electronics has been steadily growing into a major industry power since it surpassed Sony’s market value in 2002 and now finds itself within reach of industry leader Intel.

Samsung, the giant of the Korean electronics industry, surged past Sony’s market capitalization seven years ago in what was seen as a watershed event in its corporate history. The company is now closing in on what would truly be historic ground: Samsung appears poised to surpass the market value of the current leader in the semiconductor business, Intel Corporation. Many analysts expect Intel to become number two to Samsung in 12 months or less, according to a Business Week article.

Samsung seems to have thrived in the difficult environment of worldwide recession over the course of the last year. As an example, Samsung’s share of the global memory market has grown 6 percent over the past year, moving from 21 percent to 27 percent. Memory is not Samsung’s only strong suit. They are also the world’s largest TV maker and the second largest mobile phone maker, and has even been making up ground in the latter marketplace while the overall cell phone market has contacted.

As a result of these and other successes, Samsung’s market capitalization has grown from $61.8 billion to $91.5 billion over the last year, a huge increase. Intel, while it’s current value is greater than Samsung’s at $110 billion, has seen their value numbers slide 14 percent during the last year. These trends are seen as likely to continue, making it very likely that Samsung’s growth will cross the line of Intel’s value decline withing 12 months, leaving them on the top of the electronics manufacturing hill.

Samsung’s wide diversification within the electronics spectrum seems to have allowed it to grow and prosper while their competitors are losing value due to negative economic conditions. Intel has seemed powerless to stop its declining value and is not seen as likely to do so over the course of the next year. Conversely, most industry analysts expect Samsung to continue to prosper during the foreseeable future. It looks like the United States will soon be passing another crown to Asia.

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Entry was posted on Sunday, September 6th, 2009 at 9:41 pm under Intel, Storage, Technology.

Read more entries by Michael W. Jones.
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