O-STA

Samsung Semiconductor Europe Merges with Samsung Electronics UK and German

Schwalbach/Ts., Germany (ots) - Samsung Semiconductor Europe today announced its merger with the storage divisions of Samsung Electronics (UK) Ltd and Samsung Electronics GmbH, Germany, effective from July 1st, 2004. The aim of the merger is to bring all of Samsung's component product lines together in order to maximise the positive business synergies between semiconductors and optical and hard drive products.

Samsung's storage businesses have seen substantial growth over recent years, with distribution providing the strongest route to market and retail also providing good growth. The merger will help Samsung to further penetrate local systems integrators and OEMs with storage products and build on the already established relationships. The semiconductor business is strong in all of these areas and the synergies between Samsungs systems and processes will make the transition simple allowing the storage divisions to keep up their current momentum.

"The decision to merge the businesses was based on a number of factors that would enable our storage divisions in the UK and Germany to operate at their full potential," said Mr Hyung Moon Kim, President, Samsung Semiconductor Europe "The merged storage divisions will benefit from the systems and processes that the semiconductor business has in place, while providing greater penetration into desirable markets.

" The merger will allow the storage divisions to benefit from increased back office and field sales support. This will provide a greater level of service to all customers and more aggressive sales initiatives into Samsung's target areas. In Germany product availability will also increase through new logistics arrangements.

The total resources in the storage divisions are now absorbed into the semiconductor business unit with no loss of headcount, therefore opening up the total bandwidth Samsung has to the market place", concluded Kim.

About Samsung Semiconductor Europe Samsung Semiconductor Europe, a wholly owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., Seoul, Korea is headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany and London, UK with sales offices all over Europe. The two European headquarters are handling the marketing and sales activities of semiconductors, TFT LCD panels and HDD/ODD products in Europe Middle East & Africa (EMEA). More information can be found at http://www.samsungsemi.com.

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Seoul, Korea is a global leader in semiconductor, telecommunication, digital media and digital convergence technologies with 2003 parent company sales of US$36.4 billion and net income of US$5.0 billion. Employing approximately 88,000 people in 89 offices in 46 countries, the company consists of six main business units: Corporate Technology Operations, Digital Appliance Business, Digital Media Business, LCD Business, Semiconductor Business and Telecommunication Network Business. Recognized as one of the fastest growing global brands, Samsung Electronics is the world's largest producer of color monitors, color TVs, memory chips, TFT-LCDs and VCRs. For more information, visit www.samsung.com.

ots Original Text Service: Samsung Semiconductor Europe GmbH

For further information please contact:

Ariane Heim Samsung

Semiconductor Europe GmbH,

Ph: +49 (0)6196-66-35 14,

Fax +49 (0)6196-66-35 11

Email: ariane.heim@sseg.de