Samsung Electronics hit with quarterly profit slump

SEOUL: Samsung Electronics, the world’s biggest smartphone and memory chip maker, reported a slump in first-quarter net profits Tuesday, in the face of a weakening chip market and rising competition.

The result is the latest bad news for the tech titan, which last week was forced to delay the release of its much-hyped $2,000 foldable smartphone owing to problems with the screen.

Net profits in the January-March period were 5.04 trillion won ($4.3 billion) — the lowest since the third quarter of 2016 and down 56.9 percent year-on-year.