Elliott Management submitted proposals in October urging Samsung to initiate a split into a listed holding company and an operations company. "Now is the time for real shareholder value, corporate governance and transparency improvements, which we believe will help Samsung Electronics achieve an equity market valuation that properly reflects its first-class portfolio of businesses," according to a portion of the October letter. During the 2015 fiscal year, Samsung reported annual revenue of $171 billion, down from the previous year, with a stake in several businesses from electronics and smartphones to even life insurance. A split could allow Samsung to better specialize, says Holger Mueller, an analyst at Constellation Research. "The sum of the parts is more valuable than the whole thing together." Meanwhile, Samsung discontinued its Galaxy Note 7 smartphone for overheating batteries that could cause the device to catch fire or explode.