Samsung watches net profits shrink

SOUTH KOREAN GIANT Samsung Electronics has seen its first quarter net profit drop 41% in comparison with last year. According to a report on Dow Jones, the company is really feeling the pinch of tighter margins.

Samsung has obviously been busy getting bigger, despite the industry downturn it managed sales only 3% less than the same quarter last year. But in business it's the net profit that counts for more than anything. It gives a very good idea of what the industry is facing at the moment if roughly the same sales bring in 41% less net profit.

The Dow Jones report goes on to say that the actual figure this time around was $936.9 million, so Samsung is not doing too badly really. The firm shipped 13.2 million handsets in the last quarter but what's more interesting is that the company's memory division was the biggest sales generator. The memory division is also responsible for TFT panels and LSI. It would be fair to suspect that most of the profits will have come from the latter two. µ