[THE INVESTOR]  Samsung Electronics is allegedly considering acquiring French audio equipment maker Focal as part of efforts to further strengthen its competitiveness in automotive parts, local media outlet Financial News reported on Oct. 25.

“Samsung had actually hoped to acquire Danish premium audio maker Bang & Olufsen but the price was too high,” an unnamed Samsung executive was quoted as saying.

“Samsung and Focal are finalizing the talks currently. The deal price could reach 200 billion won (US$180 million) to 300 billion won.”



In December, Samsung established a new audio video business unit under its consumer electronics business division.

With the premium audio and speaker products, the newspaper said, the Korean tech giant would seek to expand its presence not just in the consumer electronics market but also in the automotive parts market, one of its new growth engine businesses.

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)