Samsung Denies Interest in Buying Orion Pictures

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co. has no interest in acquiring part or all of debt-ridden Orion Pictures Corp., a Samsung spokesman said today.

“We have never contemplated acquiring Orion and will not do so in the future,” Park Ju-Bong, in charge of publicity at Samsung Electronics, told Reuters in a telephone interview. “It is not our business style to do that,” he said. “Besides, we’ve been told Orion is an empty can.”

Several individuals in the United States had said on Wednesday that they were aware of a plan under which Samsung would pay $300 million for Orion and invest an additional $500 million in the studio.

Orion declined to comment, and a Samsung spokesman in New Jersey said Wednesday that he was unaware of any such plans. Orion has suffered a string of lackluster picture releases and has been the subject of buyout rumors.

But Samsung’s Park said: “We know that acquiring a movie studio is a good move for a consumer electronics company because of access to the software but generally speaking our strategy is different from the Japanese.” He was referring to last week’s agreement by Japan’s Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. to purchase MCA Inc., parent of Universal Studios, and to the earlier purchase of Columbia Pictures by Japan’s Sony Corp. “We would rather invest in high-tech research than buy a foreign firm,” Park said.