Samsung Electronics sees quarterly profit slide 60 percent; weakest in more than two years

“Samsung Electronics Co Ltd said on Friday it was heading for its lowest quarterly profit in more than two years as a glut in memory chips, slowing panel sales and rising competition in smartphones hit margins,” Ju-min Park and Heekyong Yang report for Reuters. “The South Korean tech giant said first-quarter operating profit likely slid 60 percent from a year earlier, missing market expectations and putting it on track for its weakest quarterly profit since late 2016.”
“Its semiconductor business is the main profit driver,” Park and Yang report. “‘In the second half, memory chip prices will have a soft landing, so falls will slow, and the release of new iPhones later seems like a good sign for Samsung’s display and memory chips,’ said Kim Yang-jae, an analyst at KTB Investment and Securities.”
Park and Yang report, “Samsung’s premium Galaxy smartphones meanwhile are struggling to be profitable due to rising costs of innovation, competition from Chinese rivals and the reluctance of consumers to upgrade, analysts have said.”
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MacDailyNews Take: Gee, that’s too bad.