Samsung Electronics Co. said Thursday its net profit more than halved in the third quarter from a year earlier due to weak memory chip prices.
The net profit of the world's largest memory chip and smartphone maker tumbled 52.3 percent to 6.3 trillion won (US$5.4 billion) in the July-September period, the company said in a regulatory briefing.
Its operating profit plunged 55.7 percent on-year to 7.8 trillion won, and sales slipped 5.3 percent to 62 trillion won in the three-month period, the firm said. The company logged a quarterly record high in operating profit during the third quarter of last year.
It marks the fourth consecutive quarter that the tech giant has reported an on-year drop in operating profit.
The operating income for the third quarter was above market expectations of 7.1 trillion won, based on the survey conducted by Yonhap Infomax, the financial arm of Yonhap News Agency on 21 Korean brokerage houses. The sales estimate stood at 61.3 trillion won on average.(Yonhap)
