SEOUL, 15 October 2005 — Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest memory-chip maker, reported yesterday solid third quarter results even as it made provisions to pay a massive fine in the United States to settle price-fixing charges.
The company, market leader in dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips and manufacturer of a host of high-tech products from mobile phones to flat screen panels, said its operating profit in the three months to September rose 28.8 percent to 2.1 trillion won ($2.0 billion) from the June quarter. Compared with a year earlier, however, operating profit was down 22.5 percent but the results largely met market expectations and Samsung Electronics shares closed unchanged at 562,000 won.
Net profit stood at 1.9 trillion won, up 11.2 percent from the previous quarter but down 29.9 percent from a year earlier as sales rose 7.0 percent to 14.5 trillion won, up 1.4 percent from 2004.
Samsung Electronics and its US subsidiary, Samsung Semiconductor Inc. have agreed to plead guilty and pay a $300 million fine for participating in an international conspiracy to fix prices, the US Department of Justice said Thursday. Samsung’s fine is the second-largest criminal antitrust fine in US history and the largest criminal fine since 1999, the department said.
Analysts largely agreed that the third quarter performance was solid, meeting market expectations.