Samsung Electronics, the world's largest maker of memory chips, smartphones and TVs, saw its fourth- quarter earnings rebound from the prior quarter on brisk chip sales and reduced marking costs, a regulatory filing showed Thursday.
Preliminary figure for Samsung's operating profit was 5.2 trillion won (4.7 billion U.S. dollars) in the three months ending Dec. 31, the company said.
The fourth-quarter profit was down 37.42 percent from a year earlier, but it rebounded from a 4.06 trillion won operating profit in the third quarter.
Samsung's operating profit fell below the 5 trillion-won mark in the third quarter of last year for the first time in 11 quarters, before rebounding above the level in the fourth quarter.
The fourth-quarter figure beat market expectations of about 4.8 trillion won on the back of robust semiconductor sales and reduced marketing costs.