Samsung Chaebol - Conglomerate

I was wondering what it meant when Samsung was referred as chaebol in some of the articles.
Chaebol in South Korea means a conglomerate which is controlled usually by some powerful families.
So this chaebol is making news in mean time for both good and bad reasons. The patent ruling against Samsung in the patent infringement case filed by Apple mighthave dented the image of Samsung. But it has given ample exposure to Samsung as the court proceedings refused to go away from making headlines.
Finally the case of patent has made it look like Samsung is the real competitor for Apple and other Android based smartphones left in the lurch in the smartphone war.