Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) has more than doubled the annual revenue of Harman, its audio subsidiary, in the decade since acquiring the company. Samsung said it will keep driving audio innovation by combining its home appliance expertise with Harman's 80 years of proprietary technology.
Samsung held a media day on the 21st at Project Space Line in Seoul's Gangnam district to mark the 80th anniversary of Harman's JBL audio brand. "Harman's global revenue rose more than twofold, from 7.1 trillion won in 2017, just after the acquisition, to 15.8 trillion won last year," the company said. "We plan to keep strengthening our competitiveness by applying audio technology to Samsung products such as smartphones, TVs and soundbars."
Samsung announced the $8 billion acquisition of Harman in November 2016. At the exchange rate at the time, the deal was worth 9.4 trillion won, the largest overseas acquisition ever made by a South Korean company. Harman has grown steadily since the deal, generating synergy with Samsung's home appliance business, and posted a record operating profit of 1.5 trillion won last year.
Brokerages estimate Harman will maintain annual operating profit above 1 trillion won even as Samsung's home appliance business is expected to post a loss in the second half on surging semiconductor and raw material costs. The company attributed the resilience to the brand strength of JBL, long regarded as a leading name in audio, which has allowed it to steadily expand product sales. Harman has also broadened its lineup, acquiring Bowers & Wilkins, a 60-year-old brand, last year alongside its own development of new technologies.
An exhibition staged as part of the media day, marking JBL's 80th anniversary and Bowers & Wilkins' 60th, offered a firsthand look at Harman's technological innovation and product strength. The venue, open from the 24th through the 31st, displays audio products from each era in showrooms decorated in the interior style of their time, evoking an IKEA showroom.
In one showroom, furnished with a vinyl record player and albums from the 1970s, the L100 Century — a popular audio product of its day — filled the space with "Fly Me To The Moon." The L100 Century, known for its orange lattice foam grille, is regarded as the world's best-selling speaker of the 1970s.
In an adjoining showroom, the massive Paragon, which looks as though an entire TV console had been turned into a speaker, played music from the 1950s. The Paragon is distinguished by a design that houses left and right speakers along with an original sound-reflecting structure in a single large cabinet. The Jackson Bell Radio, a vacuum-tube radio released in 1927, illustrates the starting point of the JBL brand. Another showroom, set up as a modern camping space complete with a tent, lets visitors try portable speakers and an artificial intelligence microphone.
Elsewhere in the exhibition, Harman presents sound technologies tailored to a range of settings — from the Woodstock Festival, considered the forerunner of rock festivals, to movie theaters, recording studios, home audio and smart devices — based on a JBL brand philosophy of accompanying every moment that calls for music.
Bowers & Wilkins, marking its 60th year, showed off its own distinctive character. The Nautilus, released in 1993, is a prime example. Its spiral design recalls the cochlea of the human inner ear. The company said the shape reflects a search for the optimal design to maximize sound quality. Speakers also radiate sound toward the rear of the device, which generates unwanted noise and vibration, and a long tube shape can reduce that problem. In addition, bass tones with wavelengths of up to three meters require a correspondingly long speaker to resonate properly, but coiling the tube into a spiral allows the length to be extended while reducing the overall size.
Young Sohn, adviser to Samsung Electronics and chairman of Harman's board, said the exhibition is "an opportunity to experience in one place the history of sound JBL has built over 80 years and the 60-year legacy of Bowers & Wilkins." He added, "We will continue to pursue innovation in audio technology so that customers around the world can enjoy the best sound in every moment of their daily lives."
