Powerful family biz ties could be tough to cut

Jay Y Lee-led Samsung, a new generation of South Korean leaders has vowed to rip up that playbook

Forget Machiavelli, or “Game of Thrones.” When it comes to staying in power, South Korea’s richest business clans have the game plan down.
 
There is the charity manoeuvre, in which family members park their stakes in their business empires in philanthropic non-profits, letting them keep control without paying heavy taxes.
 
There is the new company manoeuvre, in which they create new firms that strike lucrative and friendly business deals with the others they control.
 
And then there is old-fashioned corporate engineering, in which they merge arms of their empires together to consolidate power, even as other shareholders