Samsung Electronics Reports $4.85 Billion Profit in Q1 2024

Published: 30 April 2024 at 02:23

Business

Samsung Electronics, the flagship subsidiary of South Korea's Samsung Group, saw a nearly 10-fold increase in first-quarter operating profit, reaching 6.61 trillion won ($4.85 billion) driven by strong sales of the Galaxy S24 smartphone and higher prices for memory semiconductors. Revenue rose to 71.9 trillion won ($52 billion), up by nearly 13 percent, with a boost from a weaker won against the dollar. The company anticipates positive business conditions in the second half of 2024, with strong demand for generative AI despite macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainties.

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Samsung Electronics (Wikipedia)

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (Korean: 삼성전자; Hanja: 三星電子; RR: Samseong Jeonja; lit. Tristar Electronics; sometimes shortened to SEC and stylized as SΛMSUNG) is a South Korean multinational major appliance and consumer electronics corporation headquartered in Yeongtong-gu, Suwon, South Korea. It is currently the pinnacle of the Samsung chaebol, accounting for 70% of the group's revenue in 2012.Samsung Electronics has played a key role in the group's corporate governance due to cross ownership. Samsung Electronics has assembly plants and sales networks in 74 countries and employs more than 270,000 people. It is majority-owned by foreign investors. As of 2019, Samsung Electronics is the world's second-largest technology company by revenue, and its market capitalization stood at US$520.65 billion, the 12th largest in the world.Samsung is the world's second largest manufacturer of smartphones just behind Apple with the iPhone. Samsung is best known for its Samsung Galaxy brand. It has developed 5G-capable smartphones, including the Galaxy S24, and foldable phones, including the Galaxy Z Fold 5. The company is a major vendor of tablet computers, particularly its Android-powered Samsung Galaxy Tab collection. Samsung has been the world's largest television manufacturer since 2006 as well as the world's largest soundbar brand.The company is a major manufacturer of electronic components such as lithium-ion batteries, semiconductors, image sensors, camera modules, and displays for clients such as Apple, Sony, HTC, and Nokia. It is also the world's largest semiconductor memory manufacturer and, from 2017 to 2018, had been the largest semiconductor company in the world, briefly dethroning Intel, the decades-long champion.In 2012, Kwon Oh-hyun was appointed the company's CEO. He announced in October 2017 that he would resign in March 2018, citing an "unprecedented crisis". The company had three CEOs (Ki Nam Kim, Hyun Suk Kim, and Dong-Jin Koh) from March 2018 until December 2021, when the business units were reorganized and they were replaced by Kyung Kye-Hyun and Han Jong-hee. It has also had a separate regional CEO, HC Hong, who led the business in Southwest Asia since 2015 and then moved to Latin America in 2020.

Samsung C&T Corporation (Wikipedia)

Samsung C&T Corporation ("Construction & Trading Corporation"; formerly Samsung Corporation; Korean: 삼성물산), is a South Korean construction and engineering company. It was founded in 1938 as the first Samsung company and was initially involved in construction and overseas trading operations. Since 1995, it has largely focused on global engineering and construction projects, trade and investments, fashion and real estate. The corporation is governed by an 11-member Board of Directors, made up of the President and CEOs of its four working groups (Engineering & Construction, Trading & Investment, Fashion, and Resort), the corporation's CFO, and six independent members. Samsung C&T employs over 17,000 people. The firm is often regarded as the holding company of Samsung chaebol as it is a major shareholder of various Samsung affiliates.

Samsung (Wikipedia)

Samsung Group (Korean: 삼성; RR: samseong [samsʌŋ]; stylized as SΛMSUNG) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Digital City, Suwon, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the Samsung brand, and is the largest South Korean chaebol (business conglomerate). As of 2020, Samsung has the eighth-highest global brand value.Samsung was founded by Lee Byung-chul in 1938 as a trading company. Over the next three decades, the group diversified into areas including food processing, textiles, insurance, securities, and retail. Samsung entered the electronics industry in the late 1960s and the construction and shipbuilding industries in the mid-1970s; these areas would drive its subsequent growth. Following Lee's death in 1987, Samsung was separated into five business groups – Samsung Group, Shinsegae Group, CJ Group and Hansol Group, and JoongAng Group.Notable Samsung industrial affiliates include Samsung Electronics (the world's largest information technology company, consumer electronics maker and chipmaker measured by 2017 revenues), Samsung Heavy Industries (the world's second largest shipbuilder measured by 2010 revenues), and Samsung Engineering and Samsung C&T Corporation (respectively the world's 13th and 36th largest construction companies). Other notable subsidiaries include Samsung Life Insurance (the world's 14th largest life insurance company), Samsung Everland (operator of Everland Resort, the oldest theme park in South Korea) and Cheil Worldwide (the world's 15th largest advertising agency, as measured by 2012 revenues).

Western Digital tops profit expectations on demand from cloud-computing customers

(Reuters) - Western Digital surpassed expectations for quarterly revenue and profit on Thursday, riding on a surge in demand for its data storage products from cloud service providers. The results are the latest sign that demand for memory chips is improving, after earnings of larger rivals Micron Technology and Samsung Electronics also showed a rebound in prices of the semiconductors following a severe downturn. "We are in the early innings of unlocking the full potential of this company, and as industry supply and demand dynamics continue to improve, we will remain disciplined around our capital spending," said Western Digital CEO David Goeckeler. Goeckeler is set to lead the company's flash memory business after its planned separation from the traditional hard-disk drive unit, expected to complete in the second half of 2024. Western Digital said its revenue rose 23% to $3.

Samsung Card (Wikipedia)

Samsung Card Co, Ltd. (Hangul: 삼성카드) is a South Korean credit card company. Samsung Card was established in 1988 as a technical and business company licensed by Samsung Electronics. Headquartered in Seoul, South Korea, Samsung Card merged with Samsung Capital in 2004. The company is owned by Samsung Life Insurance (71.9%). By the end of 2017, the number of individual credit card users was 9.64 million, and the asset value of products was 21,181.9 billion won. Total billings (cumulative) in 2017 is 122,217.3 billion won.

Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co. (Wikipedia)

Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is the general title of a series of patent infringement lawsuits between Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics in the United States Court system, regarding the design of smartphones and tablet computers. Between them, the two companies have dominated the manufacturing of smartphones since the early 2010s, and made about 40% of all smartphones sold worldwide as of 2024. In early 2011, Apple began litigating against Samsung in patent infringement suits, with Samsung typically filing countersuits with similar allegations. Apple's multinational litigation over technology patents became known as part of the smartphone wars: extensive litigation and fierce competition in the global market for consumer mobile communications.By late 2011, Apple and Samsung were litigating about twenty ongoing cases in ten countries. By the following year the two companies were still embroiled in more than 50 lawsuits around the globe, with billions of dollars in damages claimed between them. While Apple won a ruling in its favor in the United States, Samsung won rulings in South Korea, Japan, and the United Kingdom. On June 4, 2013, Samsung won a limited ban from the U.S. International Trade Commission on sales of certain Apple products after the commission found Apple had violated a Samsung patent, but this was vetoed by U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman.In December 2016, the United States Supreme Court decided 8–0 to reverse a lower court decision that awarded hundreds of millions of dollars to Apple and remanded the case to the Federal Circuit Court court to determine which aspects of American patent law had been used correctly or incorrectly in the previous hearings. The two companies finally reached an out-of-court settlement in the United States in 2018.

Samsung Chairman Lee Jae-yong Acquitted of Stock Manipulation Charges

Lee Jae-yong, executive chairman of Samsung, has been acquitted of stock manipulation charges related to a 2015 merger that helped him gain control of the company. This comes after he was previously found guilty of bribery and corruption in 2017 but later released on appeal and pardoned. The Seoul Central District Court ruled that the prosecution failed to prove that the merger was unlawfully conducted with the intent to strengthen Lee's control over Samsung Electronics. Prosecutors had sought a five-year jail term for Lee.

Lee Byung-chul (Wikipedia)

Lee Byung-chul (Korean: 이병철; 12 February 1910 – 19 November 1987) was a South Korean business magnate. He was the founder of the Samsung Group, South Korea's largest chaebol, and considered one of South Korea's most successful businessmen.