Samsung, like Apple, slashes outlook amid big tech slowdown
Samsung Electronics on Tuesday said it expects its quarterly operating profit to fall nearly 29 percent lower than the year-ago period, just one week after Apple rocked markets with its lower-than-expected revenue for the critical holiday sales period.
The South Korean chipmaker said there’s weak global demand for its products amid a global economic slowdown that’s being driven, in part, by a nearly year-long trade war between the U.S. and China. Its smartphones are also facing greater competition.
Samsung announced that it anticipates a quarterly operating profit of about $9.6 billion (10.8 trillion won), while fourth-quarter sales are anticipated to be close to $52.4 billion (between 58 and 60 trillion won).
The announcement comes on the heels of Apple’s earnings warning -- its first since 2002 -- in which CEO Tim Cook said in a letter to investors that the iPhone maker expects first-quarter revenue of about $84 billion, down from the previous guidance of between $89 billion and $93 billion. Cook mostly blamed the downtick on “economic deceleration” in emerging markets -- particularly in China.
“Lower than anticipated iPhone revenue, primarily in Greater China, accounts for all of our revenue shortfall to our guidance and for much more than our entire year-over-year revenue decline,” Cook said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report