Samsung Names New Chief Exec at AST

Still struggling to get a grip on the problems plaguing AST Research Inc., the Irvine computer maker’s largest shareholder has installed another new chief executive.

Samsung Electronics Co., which is acquiring AST, has named longtime Samsung executive Soon-Taek Kim, 48, as chief executive. He succeeds former Samsung executive Young Soo Kim, who resigned after only eight months on the job, citing personal reasons. Young Soo Kim will remain a member of AST’s board of directors.

Several sources said that Young Soo Kim, 63, recently developed health problems.

But at least one industry observer suggests that it is no coincidence that his departure comes just days after AST announced it will lay off 25% of its work force--about 1,000 employees--in the wake of a $110-million first-quarter loss that followed a 1996 loss of $418 million.

“This is a polite way of saying he hasn’t done what Samsung wanted him to do,” said analyst Ian Gilson of Van Kasper & Co. in Los Angeles.

Executives at AST would not comment on Young Soo Kim’s resignation. A spokesman said the new chief executive told employees Monday morning that he intended to follow his predecessor’s game plan to focus on computers for mid-sized businesses and the low end of the consumer market. He also said he would keep the company headquartered in Irvine.

The company needs a focus, said Kevin Hause, a Silicon Valley-based PC industry analyst with International Data Corp. By the time Samsung bailed out AST with a $378-million cash investment in early 1995--the first of several rescues--the computer manufacturer was “trying to cover all of the consumer bases plus the commercial market and was trying to do it all over the world,” Hause said.

Samsung’s stake in AST is sizable. The giant Korean conglomerate already has invested more than $700 million in the company and owns 49.9% of the computer firm’s stock. Last week, it began a tender offer aimed at buying the remainder. The deal calls for Samsung to spend almost $475 million more to acquire the company, including $167.4 million in cash for the stock, at $5.40 a share, and the assumption of $307 million in debt.

The appointment of Soon-Taek Kim as president and chief executive of AST solidifies Samsung’s control. Kim, who uses the initials S.T., had been chief executive of Samsung Heavy Industries and, before that, was vice president of the Samsung Group executive staff, reporting directly to Chairman Kun-Hee Lee.

Noted as a turnaround specialist at Samsung, S.T. Kim is AST’s third president and chief executive since November 1995.

The company has been losing money and market share steadily for the past three years, a victim of management turmoil and poor timing that has kept it a yard or two behind the competition in an industry in which the race usually is won by mere millimeters.

In a statement issued Monday, Kim said his first priority at AST will be “to restore confidence in AST among our customers, vendors and employees as AST and Samsung continue to work together to complete the pending acquisition.”

AST stock closed Monday at $5.156 a share, down 3.125 cents, in moderate trading on Nasdaq.