Samsung Electronics’ network division recruited two senior executives from rival Ericsson, as the South Korean vendor shifts its business strategy to accelerate growth, The Korea Herald reported.

Henrik Jansson, previously Ericsson’s strategic sourcing manager, was named to lead a task force established to develop a new growth strategy, while Jo Mi-sun, Ericsson’s head of sustainability and corporate responsibility, was put in charge of new business areas and sales in Europe, the newspaper stated.

Samsung reports Q4 2022 results tomorrow (31 January), with profit forecast to plunge due to falling memory chip prices and weak demand for devices. The network unit is expected to maintain revenue growth in 2023 as it expands business overseas.

The company won 5G business from a range of tier-one operators after Reliance Jio awarded it a contract to build a nationwide LTE network which launched in 2016.

In 2022, NTT Docomo expanded an open RAN supply deal with Samsung and KDDI selected the vendor’s virtualised RAN equipment for its standalone 5G network.

KDDI and Docomo contracted Samsung as one of their 5G suppliers in 2019 and 2021, respectively.

Samsung also had success in the US, forging deals with Verizon, AT&T and UScellular.