Samsung plans $1 billion debt sale to fund U.S. chip plant (in Austin)

[jpak]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/chi-samsung-plans-1-billion-debt-sale-to-fund-us-chip-plant-20120116,0,3713665.story

Samsung Electronics said on Monday its U.S. operation plans to sell around $1 billion in bonds, its first major overseas debt sale in more than a decade, to fund its chip plant operations.

Samsung, which supplies semiconductors to Apple's iPhone and iPad tablet, is considering selling the 5-year bond to secure operational funds for its chip operations in Austin, Texas, and has sent requests for proposals to banks to manage the deal, a Samsung spokesman said.

The South Korean firm had around 22 trillion won ($19.2 billion) in cash as of end-September and mainly uses its internal cash to fund investments.

<not much more>

[TheWraith]

1. Samsung has been kicking ass in the mobile space.

Not only are they supplying parts to Apple for the iPhone and iPad, they've also rocketed into place as the number one smartphone manufacturer on the planet, drastically outselling even Apple, and crushing all the other competitors. In part because of efficiency, since they're building most of their own parts: internally manufactured batteries, processors, displays, etcetera, so it's all one parts chain instead of buying from vendors. And also partly for technology, since their recent devices have been very well designed and with cutting edge technology. They're the first out with an HD screen smartphone, and have been using OLED screens for awhile instead of conventional LCDs.

[BumRushDaShow]

2. Maybe Apple finally got embarrased

by the "Designed by Apple in California, Assembled in China" nonsense that is printed on their product packaging and is helping to shame themselves and their suppliers into opening or re-opening or boosting production in US plants... It's ridiculous to spend money on shipping pieces and parts all around the world because you insist on embracing the buzzword "global"... And thinking that this model would get rid of the "redundancy" and save costs. In reality, all it does is give you a single point of failure (see Japan and earthquake).

I own 2 Galaxy Tabs and my first cell was a Samsung. I really hope they follow through.