The Wall Street Journal reported today on Samsung’s huge profits, and growing stockpile of cash. “After a first quarter marked by a 42% rise in net profit, Samsung said its cash and cash equivalents grew to nearly $40 billion at the end of March.” Samsung’s earnings report showed a huge profit, and they now have a large and growing pot of cash to put back into their company (and probably back to shareholders as well). A Samsung spokesperson told the J0urnal that the money would be put into“investments sustainable for areas like facilities, R&D, and marketing that will help the company solidify or boost competitiveness”.
Samsung’s been putting out solid, reasonably priced electronics for a long time and in recent years they’ve made some very impressive mobile phones in particular. Another not so surprising thing about this report is that it shows how much larger a portion of Samsung’s profits are coming from the mobile division.
“The growth in Samsung’s cash reflects a shift in how it generates its profit. In the past, Samsung’s chip and components divisions—underpinned by years of massive capital spending—propelled earnings. Now, its huge profit comes largely from smartphones, which generate more cash because they don’t require as much capital investment. The division containing the mobile business accounted for 74% of Samsung’s operating profit; consumer electronics—such as TVs—and components—such as chips—made up the rest in the first quarter of 2013. Three years earlier in the same quarter, the mobile-phone segment accounted for 25% of operating profit, with semiconductors and LCDs comprising 56%.”
According to the article,the shareholders are clamoring for a piece of that pie and its likely they’ll get it. But it’s most exciting that Samsung should be putting a sizable chunk into R&D. With all the cool features of the GS4, the next generation of Samsung phones should be even more exciting!
[Via: The Wall Street Journal]