Samsung has been looking for ways to prod growth for many quarters now. It is still looking.
On Thursday, the company said its operating profit increased about 15 percent, far less than the almost 80 percent during the third quarter.. The numbers are preliminary; Samsung will post its final earnings later this month. But they make clear that the company’s emphasis on memory chips wasn’t enough. As Paul Mozur reports, Samsung’s announcement showed that the company is “vulnerable to the global weakness in demand for electronics, despite dominating the crucial memory-chip and display markets.”