Samsung’s heir apparent off to U.S., Mexico

Lee Jay-yong is scheduled to meet Mexico’s billionaire Carlos Slim


Samsung heir apparent Lee Jay-yong left for North America on Wednesday for talks with leaders of major global mobile carriers including billionaire Carlos Slim in Mexico.

Lee, the chief operating officer of Samsung’s flagship unit Samsung Electronics, will be meeting with U.S. telecommunications officials and visit its overseas office on his business trip during the Chuseok holiday.

During the meetings, he will most likely discuss marketing tactics on the Galaxy S3 and the Galaxy Note 2 amid the launch of Apple’s iPhone 5 in the U.S. market. 

“Chairman Lee Kun-hee will be staying in Korea (during the holiday) and Jay-yong left for the U.S. to pay a visit to Samsung Electronics’ major business partners, its overseas headquarters and its employees,” said a Samsung executive.

Samsung’s mobile business chief Shin Jong-kyun is also expected to join Jay-yong’s meetings.

Following his trip to the U.S., the heir apparent of the country’s largest conglomerate will go to Mexico to hold a meeting with Slim, who is one of the world’s richest men and the head of Latin America’s top mobile carrier America Movil and phone company Telmex.

“We don’t know the specific details of what the two parties will discuss during the talk,” said a Samsung official. “But we’re presuming that it is being arranged to cooperate in the fields of telecommunications, considering that Samsung has a plant in Mexico.”

By Cho Ji-hyun (sharon@heraldcorp.com)