SEOUL: Technology giant Samsung Electronics Co reported yesterday a near-quadrupling in net profit for the fourth quarter on strong mobile phone sales and announced bold investment plans in the face of a “very uncertain” outlook for 2003.
Still, the results of the world’s top memory chip manufacturer and third largest handset maker missed profit and sales expectations, in part because its earnings were hit by special employee performance bonuses amounting to 375 billion won (US$300mil).