LG is a company that I’ve often made fun of because they seem to do everything Samsung does, only slightly worse. Their two latest smartphones, however, the G2 and the Nexus 5, have made me change my mind and start taking LG seriously, but apparently it’s too late. According to the Korean publication ETNews, LG is going to let go 10% of their mobile phone division. An increasing number of people from within the mobile phone division have been asking to transfer to other parts of the organization for a while now.

So why the sudden disinterest in phones? Koo Bon-joon, who has been the Vice Chairman of LG for a little over two years, has allegedly said that the smartphone business is a risky one, whereas televisions are safer. That’s not to say Bon-joon doesn’t think smartphones are important, he just wants them to be an asset that makes up less of LG’s portfolio of products.

Does this mean you should hold off on buying an LG phone? With regards to the Nexus 5, no, because that’ll be supported directly by Google. But as for devices like the G2 and the soon to launch (in global markets) G Flex, I can’t help but feel that they’re not going to get the kind of attention they deserve.

When will we know more? I tend to trust ETNews quite a bit, and they say announcements should be made by the end of this year. There aren’t that many weeks left in 2013, so expect to hear something about the smartphone business during the company’s Q4 2013 financial earnings call.