Samsung’s Profit Climbs 26 Percent
Samsung Electronics Co. said its third-quarter net profit rose 26 percent from a year earlier to another record as smartphones and its chip division helped drive earnings.
As smartphone margins plateau, Samsung is finding refuge from a cyclical upturn in memory chips. The division’s margins have nearly doubled from a year earlier. The importance of Samsung’s chip unit — composed of memory and logic chips — is being highlighted as it now accounts for roughly one-fifth of its total operating profit.