Samsung need B&O for one thing: brand support.

They wouldn't be interested in B&O for design, they have a massive team of excellent designers around the world, including Samsung Europe based in London which drives most of the creative / blue sky concepts: a more creative and informed team would be hard to find (and that includes Lewis' consultancy). 

The current range of Samsung products are excellent, from their GUI  to product design; good work which do not look at B&O but are general contemporary product design. I would actually say that B&O have changed their language recently to become more contemporary and less 'classic B&O'. The BV8, with its radii detailing is a clear example of B&O looking to update their aesthetic values.
 

soundproof:

He-he. He'll eat crow. Could be he's thinking of the relative voting power of the shares.

Thanks for the clarification! 

You're welcome. Anyway he will probably have a very good explanation.

Samsung and B&O collaborate on more than you'd think.  The LCD panels in BV7 are sourced from Samsung, obviously they manufacture Serene & Serenata, B&O (apparently ... I still don't believe it) designed that cheap Bluetooth Earpiece Samsung released a few months back and it was actually in the last quarterly report that all upcoming Samsung music phones will in one way or another feature ICE power amplifiers.  At the end of the day, the ICE Power division of the company is there to for supply other manufacturers with chips and amps, not just to look pretty and give us a nice "buzz word" to use when selling BeoLab 5s!