SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics <005930.KS> posted its first-ever quarterly loss on Friday, hammered by devastating results in its memory chip and flat screen businesses as the global downturn dried up demand for electronics.
Samsung, the world's top maker of memory chips and liquid crystal displays, posted an October-December net loss of 22.2 billion won ($16.16 million), against profits of 2.21 trillion won a year ago and 1.22 trillion won in the third quarter of 2008.
The figure was smaller than a consensus forecast for a 256 billion won net loss by 11 analysts polled by Reuters, and represents Samsung's first quarterly net loss since the company started providing quarterly earnings breakdowns in 2000.
Samsung also posted an operating loss of 937 billion won for the fourth quarter, from a profit of 1.78 trillion won in the year-ago period, much steeper than expectations for a 452 billion won shortfall.
The technology giant's outlook is bleak as a lengthy downturn in the memory chip market and a rapid fall in margins in the flat-screen sector show no signs of reversing.
Shares in Samsung, South Korea's biggest company worth about $48 billion, fell 16 percent during the fourth quarter, outperforming the wider market's <.KS11> 22 percent plunge.
(Reporting by Marie-France Han and Rhee So-eui; Editing by Keiron Henderson)
