Samsung Electronics Co’s profits leaped in the fourth quarter, it said yesterday, despite the Galaxy Note 7 recall that hammered the reputation of the world’s largest smartphone maker.
The South Korean tech giant took another blow when prosecutors began investigating its involvement in a corruption scandal, which has seen South Korean President Park Geun-hye impeached and sought the arrest of the firm’s de facto leader, Lee Jae-yong.
In a statement, the Samsung group’s flagship subsidiary said it posted operating profits of 9.22 trillion won (US$7.9 billion) during the October to December period, up 50.2 percent year-on-year.
Photo: AP
Net profits for the quarter were 7.09 trillion won, up 120 percent.
Earnings were “driven by the components businesses, mainly the memory business and the display panel segment,” it said, with the stronger US dollar also boosting profits.
Analysts say memory chip prices have been driven up by stronger demand as Chinese smartphone makers release devices with high-resolution cameras and bigger storage in a bid to catch up with Samsung and Apple Inc.
As the market leader in multiple segments, Samsung’s own chip division “is the biggest benefactor,” said Tom Kang, research director at Counterpoint Technology.
Samsung said it expected “huge growth” in the sector.
Looking forward to this year, Greg Roh, an analyst at HMC Investment Securities, told reporters: “We are expecting Samsung to post record-high profits this year on the back of rising chip prices.”
Samsung said in a statement that the entirety of last year “Samsung achieved solid results, despite the Note 7 discontinuation in the second half” — the only reference to the debacle that saw the company withdraw its much-publicized device, which was intended to compete with Apple’s iPhone.
Samsung was forced to discontinue the Galaxy Note 7 in October last year after a chaotic recall that saw replacement devices also catching fire.
In total 3.1 million smartphones were recalled as authorities in the US and elsewhere banned them from use on planes and even from being placed in checked luggage.
Separately, Samsung said in a statement it would buy back 9.3 trillion won worth of its own shares.
Despite the solid figures, Samsung shares yesterday fell 0.11 percent in late-morning trading to 1.9 million won, after rising initially.
Full-year revenues for last year were almost flat at 201.9 trillion won, up 0.6 percent, but net profits rose 19 percent to 22.7 trillion won, Samsung said.
The firm has separately been caught up in a wide-ranging political corruption scandal, with prosecutors last week seeking the arrest of Lee, vice chairman of Samsung Electronics, on charges of bribery, embezzlement and perjury.
Lee, who became the group’s de facto head after his father had a heart attack in 2014, is accused of bribing Choi Soon-sil, Park’s secret confidante at the center of the scandal, and receiving policy favors from Park in return.
Samsung is the single biggest contributor to two non-profit foundations controlled by Choi, but a court rejected the arrest request due to insufficient evidence.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six