SEOUL, April 5 (Xinhua) -- Samsung Electronics, South Korea's tech behemoth, saw operating profit more than halve in the first quarter, the company said Friday.
The preliminary figure for operating profit was 6.2 trillion won (5.5 billion U.S. dollars) in the January-March quarter, down 60.4 percent compared with 15.64 trillion won (13.8 billion U.S. dollars) tallied a year earlier.
Revenue declined 14.1 percent over the year to 52 trillion won (45.8 billion U.S. dollars) in the March quarter.
Samsung's operating profit missed market expectations of about 7.1 trillion won (6.3 billion U.S. dollars) on average. It was the lowest in 10 quarters since the third quarter of 2016.
Samsung's first-quarter net income and detailed earnings of its businesses would be unveiled later this month after an external audit and the approval by the board of directors.
