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Samsung Halts Public Disclosures of Mobile Phone Sales Numbers

Friday July 29, 2011 8:26 am PDT by Eric Slivka
Even as its smartphone sales explode and appear set to cruise past Apple during the current quarter to take the top spot in the market, Samsung has instituted "a new information policy" that will see the company cease public reporting of its quarterly phone sales numbers, according to The Wall Street Journal.


While industry analysts will still be able to make some reasonable estimates of Samsung's phone shipments going forward, the new tight-lipped policy will make performance comparisons between market leaders more difficult.

"As competition intensifies, there are increased risks that the information we provide may adversely affect our own businesses," Robert Yi, Samsung's chief of investor relations, said on the call. He declined a request for further explanation.

The report notes that Samsung may have implemented the new policy at least in part due to its legal dispute with Apple, fearing that concrete comparisons between its shipments and Apple's could harm its case. Apple has accused Samsung of copying Apple's designs with its own Android-based products, which have seen tremendous success over the past several years.
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SockRolid
Posted: 8 months ago
What Mr. Yi said: "... there are increased risks that the information we provide may adversely affect our own businesses ..."

What Mr. Yi meant: We will hide the fact that Apple is beating us so our stock won't tank.
Rating: 4 Positives / 0 Negatives
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Shrink
Posted: 8 months ago
so :apple: isn't the only one wearing out the rubber in their "Top Secret" stamps.;)
Rating: 3 Positives / 0 Negatives
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*LTD*
Posted: 8 months ago

The report notes that Samsung may have implemented the new policy at least in part due to its legal dispute with Apple, fearing that concrete comparisons between its shipments and Apple's could harm its case.


Exactly. ;)

It appears even Samsung realizes there a limits to how blatantly they can play the game they're playing.
Rating: 4 Positives / 1 Negatives
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wovel
Posted: 8 months ago
Their Hot New SII was outsold by a year old phone globally, seems like a good time to keep quiet. Samsung dd not sell anything close to 14 million of them (roughly the number of iPhones sold outside the US last quarter).
Rating: 2 Positives / 0 Negatives
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quinney
Posted: 8 months ago

What Mr. Yi said: "... there are increased risks that the information we provide may adversely affect our own businesses ..."

What Mr. Yi meant: We will hide the fact that Apple is beating us so our stock won't tank.


I think he meant that it looks like they might end up paying Apple a fee for each Android phone sold and they want to be able to minimize the number.
Rating: 2 Positives / 0 Negatives
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Rocketman
Posted: 8 months ago
Publicly traded corporations are obligated to report earnings and expenses and a variety of details. They issue statements about the makeup of those earnings on a voluntary basis to help their investors understand "color" associated with those numbers.

One second after those voluntary disclosures provide any negative effects or risk doing so for any reason, they actually have an obligation to protect shareholders, even if that means being less forthcoming.

Apple itself has concatenated product lines into categories for the same reason. But if they felt it was a risk to shareholders to even report those figures they could step back from that.

So fine.

But nonetheless it is funny to us non shareholders, Samsung has to do this! :D

Rocketman
Rating: 1 Positives / 1 Negatives
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King Flamez1
Posted: 8 months ago
samsung is starting to piss me off

at least theres more competition for Apple :cool:
Rating: 0 Positives / 0 Negatives
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wovel
Posted: 8 months ago

Publicly traded corporations are obligated to report earnings and expenses and a variety of details. They issue statements about the makeup of those earnings on a voluntary basis to help their investors understand "color" associated with those numbers.

One second after those voluntary disclosures provide any negative effects or risk doing so for any reason, they actually have an obligation to protect shareholders, even if that means being less forthcoming.

Apple itself has concatenated product lines into categories for the same reason. But if they felt it was a risk to shareholders to even report those figures they could step back from that.

So fine.

But nonetheless it is funny to us non shareholders, Samsung has to do this! :D

Rocketman



Depends on the country, I do bot believe Samsung is traded in the US, nor do I think many of their public statements would stand up to SEC scrutiny. The number of "mistakes" they make in public statements is astonishing.
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winston1236
Posted: 8 months ago
sounds sketchy
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paul4339
Posted: 8 months ago

...
One second after those voluntary disclosures provide any negative effects or risk doing so for any reason, they actually have an obligation to protect shareholders, even if that means being less forthcoming.

...


Yes, as long as they still provide enough transparency to give investors an understanding of how well the company is doing: such disclosing total smartphone sales vs non-smartphone sales, but giving no breakdowns.

I can see that not disclosing number to protect investors is good, but not disclosing enough also defeats the purpose of reporting. For example, if were a Samsung investor I would like to see how smartphone and tablets sales are growing (as separate figures) so that i can make a good investment choice, or even to gauge how well management is doing. It would also be nice to see gross margins.

Once there's too much hidden, it can be used by management to hide poor decisions or poor performance.

P.
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