Samsung's Q3 2014 Profits Nosedived

The past couple years have been kind to Samsung, which has seen record profits and all sorts of bragging rights. That reign held steady for quite a while as the Korean company pumped out mobile gadgets that found favor with consumers. Those numbers started stumbling this year, however, and by the looks of things has taken a massive blow in the third quarter of this year. Such information comes from a regulatory filing, which shows the company is expecting its profits to come in at a three-year low.

The information comes from a regulatory filing Samsung submitted on Tuesday, revealing that its operating profits for the quarter spanning July to September dropped just under 60-percent, coming in at $3.8 billion. This is a pretty drastic drop below estimates, and is the worst quarter yet since Q2 2011.

The prospects for smartphones in the short term has been called "uncertain" — this next quarter could see an uptick in television-related devices and smartphones, though that certainly isn't guaranteed. The company's mobile division is suffering from the competition posed by cheaper Chinese smartphones, and by Apple on the higher-end.

Among the blight in the latest financial expectations stands the company's chip division, which saw a boon from strong demand. This led into the recent announcement that Samsung plans a hefty investment into a new chip facility in Pyeongtaek.

SOURCE: Reuters