American Tower vs Samsung: Founders, CEOs and History

Company facts

Founders

CEOs and their tenures

Timeline: American Tower and Samsung side by side

1. 1938Samsung

   Samsung Group begins

   Lee Byung-chul founded Samsung as a trading company before later generations expanded the group into electronics and industry.

2. 1969Samsung

   Samsung Electronics established

   Samsung Electronics Industry Co. Ltd. was established as the group entered electronics manufacturing.

3. 1977Samsung

   Korea Semiconductor acquired

   Samsung acquired Korea Semiconductor, a key step toward memory and component manufacturing leadership.

4. 1993Samsung

   New Management initiative

   Lee Kun-hee launched the New Management push to raise quality, design, and global competitiveness.

5. 1995American Tower

   Tower division formed inside American Radio Systems

   Steven B. Dodge set up American Tower Systems as a division of American Radio Systems to lease antenna space on broadcast and new cellular towers to multiple carriers at once.

6. 1998American Tower

   Spin-off from American Radio Systems and NYSE listing

   CBS acquired American Radio Systems in June 1998 and the tower business became the independent, NYSE-listed American Tower Corporation with more than 1,800 towers in 44 states and the District of Columbia.

7. 1999American Tower

   First international markets in Mexico and Brazil

   American Tower established operations in Mexico in 1998 and Brazil in 1999, beginning an international portfolio that later reached Europe, Africa and Asia.

8. 2002American Tower

   Telecom downturn cuts the company's market value

   Carrier and competitive local exchange carrier bankruptcies cut leasing demand and closed credit markets. American Tower's equity market value fell to about $690 million at the end of 2002 before recovering to roughly $2.4 billion a year later.

9. 2003American Tower

   James Taiclet succeeds founder Steven B. Dodge as CEO

   The board named James D. Taiclet chief executive officer on October 10, 2003, succeeding Steven B. Dodge. Taiclet added the chairman title in February 2004 and ran the company until 2020.

10. 2005American Tower

    SpectraSite merger completed

    The SpectraSite merger closed on August 8, 2005 in a stock exchange valuing SpectraSite's equity at about $3.1 billion, creating a portfolio of over 22,000 owned communications sites.

11. 2007American Tower

    Added to the S&P 500

    Standard and Poor's named American Tower as the replacement for ALLTEL in the S&P 500 in November 2007, after ALLTEL was taken private.

12. 2012American Tower

    REIT conversion takes effect

    After board approval in May 2011 and a stockholder vote in November 2011, American Tower qualified as a real estate investment trust for the taxable year beginning January 1, 2012 and began paying regular quarterly dividends.

13. 2013American Tower

    Global Tower Partners acquisition closes

    American Tower completed the purchase of MIP Tower Holdings, parent of Global Tower Partners, on October 1, 2013, paying about $3.3 billion in cash and assuming roughly $1.5 billion of debt.

14. 2015American Tower

    Verizon tower transaction

    American Tower took exclusive rights to lease and operate about 11,324 Verizon towers for roughly 28 years and bought about 165 towers outright for $5.056 billion in cash.

15. 2017Samsung

    Harman acquisition closes

    Samsung completed the Harman acquisition, expanding into connected car systems and premium audio.

16. 2020American Tower

    InSite Wireless deal adds the first Canadian sites

    The $3.5 billion InSite Wireless Group acquisition closed on December 23, 2020, adding about 3,000 communications sites primarily in the United States and Canada.

17. 2021American Tower

    Telxius Towers and CoreSite reshape the portfolio

    American Tower agreed in January 2021 to buy roughly 31,000 Telxius Towers sites in Germany, Spain, Brazil, Chile, Peru and Argentina for about $8.7 billion (7.7 billion euros), then closed the $10.1 billion CoreSite data center acquisition on December 28, 202…

18. 2022Samsung

    Jong-Hee Han becomes CEO

    Jong-Hee Han became CEO of Samsung Electronics Co. in 2022. A longtime TV business leader who helped keep Samsung the top global TV brand.

19. 2024American Tower

    Leadership change and exit from India

    Steven Vondran became president and chief executive officer on February 1, 2024. On September 12, 2024 American Tower closed the disposal of ATC India, about 76,000 communications sites, to Data Infrastructure Trust for total cash proceeds of about $2.5 billio…

20. 2024Samsung

    Jun Young-hyun becomes CEO

    Jun Young-hyun became CEO of Samsung Electronics Co. in 2024. Head of the semiconductor (Device Solutions) division and memory business; sole CEO for part of 2025 after Han Jong-hee's death, then co-CEO with TM Roh from November 2025.

21. 2025American Tower

    FY2025 results and a smaller, denser portfolio

    American Tower reported FY2025 revenue of $10,645 million and adjusted EBITDA of $7.1 billion, ended the year with 149,686 communications sites and net leverage of 4.9 times adjusted EBITDA, and repurchased about $365 million of stock.

22. 2025Samsung

    TM Roh joins Young Hyun Jun as co-CEO

    Samsung named TM Roh Head of Device eXperience and CEO, joining Young Hyun Jun as co-CEO.

23. 2025Samsung

    Annual revenue reaches ~$237B (KRW 333.6T)

    Samsung Electronics reported ~$237 billion (KRW 333.6 trillion) in 2025 annual revenue and ~$31 billion (KRW 43.6 trillion) in operating profit.

24. 2025Samsung

    Roh Tae-moon (TM Roh) becomes CEO

    Roh Tae-moon (TM Roh) became CEO of Samsung Electronics Co. in 2025. Longtime head of the mobile business.

Acquisitions

Questions about American Tower vs Samsung