Key Financial Data
- Total revenue: ₩21.87 trillion (U.S. $15.62 billion) [-1.4% year-over)
- Operating profit: ₩689 billion ($489 million) [-8.4%]
- Home appliance revenue: ₩6.58 trillion ($4.7 billion) [+4.7%]
- Media & Entertainment services revenue: ₩4.653 trillion ($3.32 billion) [-9.5%]
- Vehicle solutions revenue: ₩2.65 trillion ($1.89 billion) [+1.4%]
- Eco solutions revenue: ₩2.167 trillion ($1.55 billion) [+1.1%]
LG reported soft third quarter (Q3) revenue in its media and entertainment solutions sector that was largely predicated on ongoing advertising market challenges and lower sales of its smart TVs and similar Internet connected devices.
During the quarter, LG reported ₩4.653 trillion (around U.S. $3.3 billion) in media and entertainment-related revenue, down 9.5 percent compared to the same time period last year, based largely on weaker global TV demand and hotter competition from rivals like Samsung, TCL, Sony and others.
The company logged an income loss of ₩302.6 billion (around U.S. $216 million) due in large part to restructuring-related expenses as LG turns its focus to generating cash from its webOS platform on its smart TVs and other devices already installed in homes. Part of that restructuring involved voluntary buyouts in some units, which increased its impairment-related costs and led to a higher operating loss for Q3 compared to the same period last year.
LG said it wasn’t sure if sales-related problems were going to reverse heading into Q4 or the foreseeable future, with the company citing ongoing trade wars — including tariffs in the United States – among the factors that led to weaker sales in Q3 and which are likely to influence sales in the coming months.
Overall, revenue at LG clocked in at ₩21.87 trillion (around U.S. $15.6 billion) during Q3, driven primarily by stronger sales between Q2 and Q3, though sales were down when compared to the prior year.
LG said it is continuing to prioritize the development of webOS with the goal of expanding it to other smart screen platforms and licensing it to third-party manufacturers of smart TVs. The company is also focused on emerging markets like Southeast Asia and Latin America, which have not seen the same flavor of consumer protectionism as markets like the United States and Europe.
