SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co Ltd <005930.KS> on Friday posted a 44 percent drop in third-quarter profit as persistent weakness in its memory business offset a solid performance in flat screens and mobile phones.
Samsung, the world's top maker of memory chips and liquid crystal displays (LCDs), reported July-September net profit fell to 1.22 trillion won ($870.5 million) from 2.19 trillion won a year ago and 2.14 trillion won earned in April-June.
The figure came in line with a forecast for a 1.23 trillion won net profit by 11 analysts polled by Reuters.
Makers of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips, mired in a downturn that started in early 2007, are not expecting a recovery before the second quarter of 2009.
The future looks challenging for Samsung, which is facing a lengthy downturn in the once-reliable memory market and a rapid margin deterioration in the flat-screen sector, along with slowing demand for all consumer electronics.
Shares in Samsung, South Korea's biggest company, fell 13.8 percent in the third quarter, in line with the wider market's <.KS11> 13.5 percent loss.
(Reporting by Marie-France Han and Rhee So-eui; editing by Jonathan Hopfner and Keiron Henderson)
