What They Say
The Elec reports that Samsung and BOE have fallen out on the supply of TV LCD panels after Samsung is said to have demanded a royalty payment in return for BOE being able to say that it is supplying Samsung. BOE is reported to have refused such a payment.
What We Think
Hmmm, with a visit by TCL’s Chairman to South Korea, as we reported last week, this article is probably part of putting more pressure on BOE. (we have a really interesting article on the TCL visit that should be published tomorrow, Tuesday – ed.)
This kind of deal is not new. Thirty years ago, I was running a high end monitor company and Maclaren, which happened to be very close by the firm, was using the monitors in its F1 and road car developments. I suggested that we’d like to run an advert saying that we were a supplier and was referred to ‘the sponsorship department’. They had a different sense of how much marketing budget we should devote to the ad, so we didn’t go ahead.
For a couple of years, when it was designing the F1 road car, the firm had a design group on the same industrial estate as our firm. Some days, the office would suddenly empty of male staff and, invariably, this was because Maclaren had got some exotic supercar to evaluate and had left it in the car park! (BR)
Image: Samsung
