Samsung Third-Quarter Profit Falls 44%

The South Korean technology company's earnings fall victim to the slowing global economy.

Author:: TSC Staff
Publish date:: Oct 24, 2008 2:20 AM EDT

Samsung Electronics

reported net profit declined 44% in the third quarter as the slowdown in the global economy clipped the technology company's results.

"Overall, our third-quarter earnings were impacted by the worsening market conditions resulting from the slowdown in the global economy," Samsung executive Chu Woo-sik told analysts Friday on a conference call, the

Associated Press

reports.

The South Korean company's semiconductor business fell in the quarter because of a prolonged cycle of tight pricing for memory chips used in computers and other gadgets, according to a

Wall Street Journal

report.

Samsung earned 1.22 trillion won ($857 million), down from 2.19 trillion won a year ago. Revenue rose 15.4% to 19.3 trillion won.

By revenue, Samsung is the world's largest maker of TV sets, memory chips for computers and other digital gadgets, and flat-panel screens for many products, according to the

Journal

Samsung Electronics on Wednesday withdrew its proposal to acquire

SanDisk

(SNDK)

for $26 a share in cash, saying there were "growing uncertainties" in SanDisk's business and SanDisk's greater-than-expected third-quarter loss is an illustration of that risk.