Samsung's Fourth Quarter Profits Rise 26.4%

Despite slowing smartphone sales, Samsung managed to rally over the past quarter, reporting a 26.4 percent surge in profits over the holiday season, equating to $54.98 billion USD.

Sales for Samsung’s smartphone business slumped 11 percent over the fourth quarter of 2020, but the South Korean tech giant still wrapped up the year with strong results, growing its revenue by a whopping 29.6 percent across the whole year to roughly $211.5 billion USD. Profits for the whole of 2020 were also in the green, rising 2.78 percent to $32.1 billion USD. More specifically, Samsung says its fourth quarter earnings were mainly boosted by its display and memory businesses, with the former breaking its previous quarterly record.

Looking forward, Samsung expects its next quarter to be heavily driven by smartphone sales. In an effort to battle slowing demand, the company pushed up its recently-launched Galaxy S21 range a month early for consumers, and have also launched them at a relatively more affordable prince range compared to the S20 series in hopes that the lower price tags will lead to a growth in sales.

In other business-related news, Supreme owner VF Corp. saw a six percent drop in revenue over the holiday quarter.