Samsung posts record quarterly profit despite scandals

Despite being slammed by scandals, Samsung just recorded a record quarter of business with a net profit of $9.9 billion for Q2 2017.

The Korea firm has been rocked by the recall of the Galaxy Note 7 and the prosecution of de facto leader Jay Y. Lee on bribery charges, but that didn’t stop it from pulling in revenue of $54.8 billion during the three-month period. That revenue figure rose by 20 percent year-on-year, but net profit jumped 89 percent thanks primarily to strong Galaxy S8 sales and Samsung’s components businesses.

Despite the results, Samsung did caution that high component prices had eaten into some of the profit from its mobile business. Likewise, it forecast that its mobile profits may decline due to marketing costs associated with the upcoming launch of its next Note smartphone, and declining sales of the Galaxy S8 now that it is out of its post-launch period.

Samsung also shed light on Harman, which is its most expensive acquisition at $8 billion. The business did $1.9 billion in sales with an operating profit of $200 million however, when factoring in costs from the acquisition, net profit was $5 million. The deal is likely to impact Harman’s results for the next few quarters, Samsung said.