LG Display

LG Display Co., Ltd. (Korean: LG 디스플레이) is one of the world's largest manufacturers and supplier of thin-film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) panels, OLEDs and flexible displays. LG Display is headquartered in Seoul, South Korea, and currently operates nine fabrication facilities and seven back-end assembly facilities in South Korea, China, Poland and Mexico.

LG Display has manufactured displays used in products such as the iPhone 14 Pro and Sony's OLED TVs.

History

LG Display was originally formed as a joint venture by the Korean electronics company LG Electronics and the Dutch company Philips in 1999 to manufacture active matrix liquid crystal displays (LCDs) and was formerly known as LG.Philips LCD, but Philips sold off all its shares in late 2008.[3] Both companies also had another joint venture, called LG.Philips Displays, dedicated to manufacturing cathode ray tubes, deflection yokes, and related materials such as glass and phosphors.

On 12 December 2008, LG.Philips LCD announced its plan to change its corporate name to LG Display upon receiving approval at the company's annual general meeting of shareholders on 29 February. The company claimed the name change reflected changes following the reduction of Philips' equity stake.

The company has eight manufacturing plants in Gumi and Paju, South Korea. It also has a module assembly plant in Nanjing and Guangzhou in China and Wroclaw in Poland.

LG Display became an independent company in July 2004 when it was concurrently listed on the New York Stock Exchange (nyse: LPL) and the South Korean Stock Exchange.

They are one of the main licensed manufacturers of the more color-accurate IPS panels used by Dell, NEC, ASUS, Apple (including iMacs, iPads, iPhones, iPod Touches) and others, which were developed by Hitachi.

LG Display discontinued its LCD production lines in South Korea in late 2022,[4] and will completely exit the LCD manufacturing business with the sale of its last remaining plant in Guangzhou, China to be completed in June 2024, focusing more of its budget and production on OLED panels.[5] LG Display said September 26, 2024. it has sold its facilities in China to a subsidiary of Chinese tech giant TCL Group for 2 trillion won (US$1.5 billion) as part of its business reorganizing effort.[6]

LCD price fixing

In December 2010, the EU fined LG Display €215 million for its part in an LCD price fixing scheme.[7] Other companies were also fined for a combined total of €648.9 million, including Chimei Innolux, AU Optronics, Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd., and HannStar Display Corp.[8] LG Display has said it is considering appealing the fine.[9]

This followed the 2008 case in the US, when LG Display, Chunghwa Picture Tubes and Sharp Corp., agreed to plead guilty and pay $585 million in criminal fines[10][11] for conspiring to fix prices of liquid crystal display panels. LG Display would pay $400 million, the second-highest criminal fine that the US Justice Department antitrust division had ever imposed.[12]

Corporate Governance

As of 2023

Products

Some examples of products that use LCD panels from LG display are Apple's 2009 27-inch iMac, Apple's Thunderbolt Display, and Dell's U2711 LCD Monitor.[13]

Additional products include Apple's 20-inch Cinema Display and Dell's UltraSharp 2005FPW LCD Monitor. These use the "LG.Philips" branding.[14]

As of 2022, LG Display is the manufacturer of the OLED panels used in Sony's OLED TVs.[15]

As of late 2022, LG Display was one of the two suppliers for displays for the iPhone 14 Pro, along with Samsung Display.[16][17]

LG was one of the two suppliers of LCD Displays for the first "Retina" model of the MacBook Pro in 2012, along with Samsung.[18]

LG Display showcased stretchable displays at Seoul Fashion Week 2025, integrated into clothing and bags, offering dynamic design flexibility.[19]

Controversies

In November 2008, LG ("LG Philips" at that time) plead guilty and was sentenced to pay criminal fines by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), European Commission and South Korea Fair Trade Commission, for its participation in a five-year conspiracy to fix the prices of thin-film transistor LCD panels sold worldwide.

See also

References

  1. LG Display Co., Ltd. (NYSE:LPL) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript 2023-01-30^
  2. LG Display Wins 2023 Bosch Global Supplier Award 2023-08-06^
  3. LG Display shares drop 5.4 percent on Philips stake sale Reuters, 12 March 2009^
  4. Joyce Lee, Heekyong Yang. LG Display flags turnaround in H2 after record loss in Q4 Reuters, 27 January 2023, retrieved 4 May 2024^
  5. Jun-Ho Cha. LG Display to pull out of LCD business; BOE, CSOT eye Guangzhou plant The Korea Economic Daily, 20 February 2024, retrieved 4 May 2024^
  6. LG Display sells its China plant to TCL subsidiary for 2 tln won Yonhap News, 2024^
  7. Aoife White. LCD-Panel Makers Fined $649 Million by European Union for Price Fixing Bloomberg News, 8 December 2010, retrieved 2010-12-11^
  8. EUROPA – PRESS RELEASES – Press release – Joaquín Almunia Vice President of the European Commission responsible for Competition Policy Press conference on LCD cartel, Visa and French chemists' association decisions Press conference Brussels, 8 December 2010 Europa (web portal), retrieved 2013-11-14^
  9. 2 LCD giants face contrasting fates The Korea Times, 9 December 2010, retrieved 2010-12-11^
  10. Terry Frieden, Justice Producer. $585 million LCD price-fixing fine CNN, 12 November 2008^
  11. #08-1002: LG, Sharp, Chunghwa Agree to Plead Guilty, Pay Total of $585 Million in Fines for Participating in LCD Price-fixing Conspiracies (2008-11-12) Justice.gov, retrieved 2012-03-25^
  12. LCD Makers Will Plead Guilty in Price-Fixing Scheme (Update2) Bloomberg News, 12 November 2008^
  13. Sam Oliver. Teardown of Apple's Thunderbolt Display finds same LG panel used in 2009 iMac 2011-09-28, retrieved 2023-09-21^
  14. Kristopher Kubicki. The 20" LCD Shootout: Dell versus Apple - Specifications 2005-04-27, retrieved 2023-09-21^
  15. Chris Welch. Sony announces the world's first QD-OLED 4K TV, coming later this year 2022-01-04, retrieved 2023-09-21^
  16. Malcom Owen. LG Display joins OLED panel supply chain for the iPhone 14 Pro 8 November 2022^
  17. Sora Park. LG Display supplies OLED to Apple's 'iPhone 14 Pro' 10 November 2022^
  18. Jordan Kahn. MacBook Pro with Retina display: Problems in every dimension 9to5Mac, 2013-03-20, retrieved 2023-09-21^
  19. Jitendra Gupta. LG launches stretchable display at Seoul Fashion Week Trendytechdev, Jitendra Gupta, 5 September 2024, retrieved 21 September 2024^