Only a handful of reporters were at Samsung's booth at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this month when Jay Y. Lee dropped by.
They had been tipped that the sheltered heir to the Samsung business empire was about to make his first public appearance since his father named him one of the new presidents of the conglomerate's flagship, Samsung Electronics, in December.
Most of the Korean media contingent eagerly awaiting his appearance at the show had been diverted to another news conference. They didn't miss much. Jay Lee's remarks were brief and bland. He mainly wanted to make it clear his ambition was to be a chip off the old (and equally aloof) block.
"I'm trying very hard to learn his challenging attitude and personalize it," said Jay Lee, 42, the only son of Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-hee. "The chairman has this DNA that just won't let him be seen being beaten," said the boyish-looking Lee, wearing rimless spectacles and a business suit with an open collar.
His father's formula has helped turn Samsung into a top global brand over the past decade or so, boasting a market value of $143 billion, bigger than Intel and Hewlett Packard and equal to the combined value of Sony Corp, Nokia, Toshiba and Panasonic Corp.
Yet that's still less than half of Apple's $320 billion market value.
Samsung, which has had better net earnings than any other global tech firm except Microsoft and IBM over the past decade, is set to report its lowest profit in six quarters when it issues December quarter corporate results on Friday, although 2010 will be another record profit year.
The outlook for this year and beyond is unclear as global technology firms grapple with weak demand and falling prices for memory chips and flat screens, and new players enter the market for smartphones and tablets.
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