http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/02/technology/samsung-to-keep-head-of-ailing-mobile-division.html 2014-12-01 11:38:50 Samsung to Keep Head of Ailing Mobile Division Analysts said Jay Y. Lee, the likely successor of the group's patriarch Lee Kun-hee, chose to keep his father's main lieutenants in place to ensure stability. === SEOUL — Samsung Electronics defied speculation that it would drop the head of its underperforming mobile division, as the Samsung employees have been waiting nervously for a reshuffling after a weak performance in smartphones and the worst earnings in three years. But J.K. Shin, the embattled co-chief executive of Samsung Electronics, now knows he will continue to head the unit’s mobile division despite sagging smartphone sales. Kwon Oh-hyun, head of the semiconductor business, and Yoon Boo-keun, head of consumer electronics, also kept their jobs, according to Samsung. Analysts said Jay Y. Lee, the likely successor and only son of the group’s patriarch, Lee Kun-hee, decided to keep his father’s main lieutenants in place to ensure stability and consolidate his own position. “With Samsung undergoing major changes in the midst of the succession process, like selling affiliates and listing units, it would have been too unsettling to change leadership,” said Chung Sun-sup, head of the local research company Park Ju-gun, head of the corporate monitor CEO Score, said the junior Mr. Lee most likely needs more time to shore up his position in Samsung with his father still in the hospital after a heart attack in May. “It was too soon for him to take a big risk at this point,” Mr. Park said. Lee June, senior vice president of Samsung Group, said that Mr. Shin was “a major contributor in Samsung Electronics’ emergence as the top global player in the handsets business” and would be given an opportunity to turn the business around. Squeezed by rivals like Xiaomi Technology of China at the low end and Apple’s iPhones at the top, Samsung Electronics’s share of the smartphone market has shrunk year-on-year for the past three quarters, leading to speculation that Mr. Shin’s days were numbered. Samsung Electronics insiders said that employees’ focus was now on any follow-up management appointments and on reorganization plans expected later this week.