South Koreas Samsung Electronics recorded a net loss for the last three months of 2008, while its net profit for the entire year fell 26 percent.

The companys net loss for the last three months of 2008 was 22 billion won (US$15 million) on 4 percent lower sales of 18.5 trillion won. Samsung said its full year net profit dropped 26 percent to 5.5 trillion won, despite a 15 percent increase in revenue to 73 trillion won.

Samsung saw revenues fall as a result of lower prices for its mainstay memory chip and flat-panel display products. In the semiconductor sector revenues fell 18 percent from the third quarter and LCD sales dropped 12 percent.

As a result both the semiconductor and display business units lost money in the fourth quarter.

Samsung said it sees the global handset market contracting by between 5 percent and 10 percent this year and hopes to ship 200 million phones in 2009, which is roughly unchanged from 2008.

Source: IT World News