LG says focus is on jobs as it reviews smartphone business

Ensuring job security is LG Electronics' first priority in reconsidering its long-struggling smartphone business. The company is also reviewing ways to "internalize LG's mobile assets with other future-oriented businesses."

A smartphone store at Yongsan, central Seoul, on Jan. 21. [YONHAP]

Ensuring job security is LG Electronics' first priority in reconsidering its long-struggling smartphone business.

“As indicated in our statement last week, the company is in the process of subjectively assessing our smartphone business, leaving open all possibilities,” said Seo Dong-myung, an LG mobile business executive, during a conference call on Friday.

“Currently, the job stability of our staff is our highest priority. We’re searching for the optimal plan considering the company’s future strategies and financials.”

Answering an analyst’s question on whether halting the mobile business will affect other high-tech fields like the Internet of Things, robotics or autonomous driving, Seo added the company is also reviewing ways to "internalize LG’s mobile assets with other future-oriented businesses."

In a Jan. 20 statement, LG Electronics admitted it is now “at a stage where its competitiveness needs to be coldly and impartially judged.”

Even during the Friday conference call, LG did not specify what the future direction will be nor share a specific date of when that announcement will come.

As of the fourth quarter of 2020, LG’s mobile communications business had seen operating losses for 23 quarters straight. Last year, its operating loss totaled 841.2 billion won ($752.5 million).

BY SONG KYOUNG-SON [song.kyoungson@joongang.co.kr]