Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (Seoul, Korea) announced that net profit was down 18% sequentially, and 52% year-over-year. The company cited pricing pressure for both semiconductors and LCDs. It reported first-quarter sales of approximately $13.5 billion (13.8 trillion Korean won), which was down 1% sequentially and 4% year-over-year.
The sales translated into a net profit of $1.47 billion (1.5 trillion won). The company's profit margin was 11%, compared with 22% in the year-ago period. Samsung's semiconductor sales were actually up 9% year-over-year in the first quarter, lead by DRAM sales of $3.5 billion (3.54 trillion won), which were up 12% year-over-year. Samsung's LCD sales of $1.86 billion (1.9 trillion won) were down 3% sequentially, and down 20% year-over-year.
