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Battered by a debacle caused by its combustible smartphone, Samsung Electronics posted a 29.6 percent drop in its third-quarter operating profit Thursday as its mobile division suffered a drastic setback.
Samsung said its operating profit in the July-September period fell to 5.2 trillion won (4.58 billion US dollars) from 7.3 trillion won a year ago. From a quarter earlier, operating profit plunged 36.1 percent.
Third-quarter sales slipped 7.4 percent on year to 47.8 trillion won, the world's largest smartphone maker said in a regulatory filing. Samsung suspended production of its fire-prone Galaxy Note 7 smartphone on October 11.
Samsung's IT and mobile division posted a third-quarter operating profit of only 100 billion won. However, the company predicted a turnaround in its business next year with the launch of new flagship smartphones, saying sales of its existing devices such as Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge remained solid.
Samsung's semiconductor business reported a third-quarter operating profit of 3.37 trillion won. The company said demand for DRAM and NAND would remain strong, citing the launch of new smartphones and increased shipments of high-density memory chips.
Aju News Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
