Type Public Industry Conglomerate Headquarters Seoul, South Korea | Traded as KRX: 003550 Founder Koo In-hwoi | |
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Founded 5 January 1947; 70 years ago (1947-01-05) | ||
LG Corporation (Korean: 주식회사 LG), formerly Lucky-GoldStar (Korean: Leogki Geumseong (럭키금성/樂喜金星)), is a South Korean multinational conglomerate corporation. It is the fourth-largest chaebol in South Korea. It is headquartered in the LG Twin Towers building in Yeouido-dong, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul. LG makes electronics, chemicals, and telecom products and operates subsidiaries such as LG Electronics, Zenith, LG Display, LG Uplus and LG Chem in over 80 countries.
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History
LG Corp. established as Lak-Hui Chemical Industrial Corp. in 1947. In 1952, Lak-Hui (pronounced "Lucky", currently LG Chem) became the first Korean company to enter the plastics industry. As the company expanded its plastic business, it established GoldStar Co. Ltd. (currently LG Electronics Inc.) In 1958, both companies Lucky and GoldStar merged and formed Lucky-GoldStar.
GoldStar produced South Korea's first radio. Many consumer electronics were sold under the brand name GoldStar, while some other household products (not available outside South Korea) were sold under the brand name of Lucky. The Lucky brand was famous for hygiene products such as soaps and HiTi laundry detergents, but the brand was mostly associated with its Lucky and Perioe toothpaste. Even today, LG continues to manufacture some of these products for the South Korean market, such as laundry detergent.
In 1995, to compete better in the Western market, the Lucky-GoldStar Corporation was renamed "LG". The company also associates the letters LG with the company's tagline "Life's Good". Since 2009, LG has owned the domain name LG.com.
Joint ventures
Since 2001, LG had two joint ventures with Royal Philips Electronics: LG Philips Display and LG Philips LCD, but Philips sold off its shares in late 2008. In 2005, LG entered into a joint venture with Nortel Networks, creating LG-Nortel Co. Ltd.
International markets
On 30 November 2012, comScore released a report of the October 2012 U.S. Mobile Subscriber Market Share that found LG lost its place as second in the U.S. mobile market share to Apple Inc.
On 20 January 2013, Counterpoint Research announced that LG has overtaken Apple to become second largest in U.S. market share.
On 7 August 2013, comScore released a report of the June 2013 U.S. Smartphone Subscriber Market Share that found LG fell to fifth place in the U.S mobile market share.
Logo
The company logo of LG features a circle containing the letters "L" and "G", presented in the form of a smiling human face.
Associated companies
Structure and financial position
LG Corporation is a holding company that operates worldwide through more than 30 companies in the electronics, chemical, and telecom fields. Its electronics subsidiaries manufacture and sell products ranging from electronic and digital home appliances to televisions and mobile telephones, from thin-film transistor liquid-crystal displays to security devices and semiconductors. In the chemical industry, subsidiaries manufacture and sell products including cosmetics, industrial textiles, rechargeable batteries and toner products, polycarbonates, medicines, and surface decorative materials. Its telecom products include long-distance and international phone services, mobile and broadband telecommunications services, as well as consulting and telemarketing services. LG also operates the Coca-Cola Korea Bottling Company, manages real estate, offers management consulting, and operates professional sports clubs.
Sports sponsorship
LG has owned the LG Twins and Changwon LG Sakers.