Samsung Electronics Co. on Friday said it would restructure itself into two operating divisions, one focused on consumer products like television sets and cellphones and the other on components such as memory chips and displays.

The company said Chief Executive Officer Lee Yoon-woo would directly oversee the components division. Mr. Lee, who is 62 years old, is a former leader of Samsung's chip business and became CEO last May.

The consumer-products unit will be led by Choi Gee-sung, who has been president of the company's cellphone operation for the last two years and led the TV and video business before that.

The restructuring elevates Mr. Choi, 57 years old. Samsung became the world's largest maker of TV sets by units when Mr. Choi was in charge of that business. Since he took control of the cellphone business in 2007, Samsung overtook Motorola Inc. to become the world's second-largest handset maker by units. Nokia Corp. is the largest maker of cellphones.

But the change also underlines Samsung's major operational challenge: that its components businesses serve companies that compete with its own consumer-products businesses. For years, Samsung's CEO has had to balance the strategies of divisions that sometimes stepped on the toes of customers of other divisions.

For the past two years, Samsung operated four main divisions -- chips, liquid crystal displays, consumer electronics and cellphones. In 2007, it combined a home-appliance business with consumer electronics.

Evan Ramstad