Skip to main content

Despite scandals, explosions, Samsung has highest quarterly earnings in 3 years

Proving that every action really does have an equal and opposite reaction is Samsung, which has bounced back from its seemingly disastrous Galaxy Note 7 recall with its best quarter in three years. On Tuesday, the South Korean phone maker posted its fourth quarter earnings, announcing that it had posted around $7.2 billion in profits on sales of $45.8 billion. That represents a 50-percent increase from the fourth quarter of last year. Clearly, you just can’t keep Samsung down.

“Fourth quarter earnings were driven by the components businesses, mainly the Memory business and the Display Panel segment, which manufactures OLED and LCD screens,” Samsung noted in its own announcement. “Robust sales of high-end, high-performance memory products and expanded process migration in V-NAND, plus strong shipments of OLED and large-size UHD panels contributed to profitability.” The company also mentioned that the strength of the U.S. dollar helped with operating profits.

Recommended Videos

While Samsung wasn’t immune to its Note 7 debacle (its third quarter earnings in 2016 took a related hit), it has been able to recover quite nicely. It’s unclear if this good luck will continue, however. After all, Samsung has only recently released findings on its investigation into the cause of the Note 7’s spontaneous combustibility.

Moreover, the firm is currently embroiled in a political scandal that could have an impact on its finances, especially considering the people involved in the scandal are all high-ranking executives.

This, in fact, is something the company has readily admitted to in a related statement, “The uncertain business environment such as the changing political landscape in Korea and overseas poses a challenge to the execution of mid- to long-term business strategies, such as M&A and investment decisions and developing new growth engines.”

But at least for now, it looks as though Samsung is doing quite well.

Lulu Chang
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Fascinated by the effects of technology on human interaction, Lulu believes that if her parents can use your new app…
Dashlane simplifies digital credential management for people, teams and businesses
Dashlane credential management tool for teams featured image

Have you ever considered a credential management tool for your team or business? Allow me to explain. When it comes to digital and online safety, something you hear often is never to share your credentials, account details, or passwords with anyone. You're not supposed to share account details or passwords, even with people you know well. That's not necessarily because they can't be trusted, it's more that you never know how someone else will handle your sensitive information. If they stow it somewhere easily accessible, like in a plain text document on their desktop, it weakens your security and makes your accounts more vulnerable. Plus, there’s no telling who they’ll share that information with.

Keeping your logins to yourself is also how you’re advised to protect professional or business accounts in the workplace. But it makes things more difficult, especially when you’re working with a team. Sometimes, you need tool or platform logins to be available to everyone. There is a much better way to administrate password sharing, and most importantly, it doesn’t compromise security. The answer is a digital credential management tool like Dashlane.

Read more
Thanks to Squarespace Refresh website building has never been more intuitive
squarespace refresh makes web building intuitive featured image

When it comes to building and designing your own website, from scratch, there is a lot of trial and error involved. Believe me, I've been there. But what's more important as an entrepreneur and when you're trying to present your business, big or small, is that the presentation has to be decidedly professional. It needs to be attractive and user-friendly, with easy access to everything that's most important for your business. Whether that's a section to browse available products, checkout, learn more about you and the team, or something else entirely. It's a lot of work and requires a lot of time invested. It's so much easier to have a templatized and convenient builder handy.

That's precisely where you can turn to something like Squarespace, which makes it so much easier to build the website of your dreams. But even more exciting is Squarespace's 2024 Refresh announcement. A product showcase, the brand says it creates a "new era for entrepreneurs." From new design tools with AI-powered features to enhanced business solutions to bring your business websites to the next level, the goal is to elevate your experiences and those of your visitors or customers. Let's take a closer look.

Read more
The 10 best VPN services for 2024, reviewed by experts
Surfshark VPN on Mac protecting user data.

You rely on the internet to stay connected to friends, family, and coworkers, monitor the news, shop, pay bills, and more. That makes privacy and security more important than ever, and a virtual private network (VPN) is one of the easiest, cheapest, and most effective ways to hide your location and safeguard your online activities from unwanted network intruders.

But if you're having trouble choosing the right VPN service for your budget and security needs, don't worry: We can help. Below, you'll find a list of the best VPNs around. Our comprehensive guide to the best VPN services covers pricing, features, and all the information you need to make an informed decision.

Read more