SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - Samsung Electronics Co. said Friday its net profit topped US$10 billion last year, reaching a new landmark in its 35-year history of rising from a Third World television maker to the world's No. 1 maker of memory chips and flat panel screens.
Samsung exited last year on a weak note, with its fourth-quarter net profit falling 2 percent from a year earlier to 1.83 trillion won (US$1.76 billion; euro1.34 billion) due to squeezed margins for its mobile handsets and weaker prices for liquid crystal displays.