SEOUL, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- Samsung Electronics, the world's biggest maker of memory chips, displayed panels and TVs, posted a double-digit fall in operating profit in the fourth quarter, a regulatory filing showed Tuesday.
Preliminary figure for operating profit was 10.8 trillion won (9.6 billion U.S. dollars) in the October-December quarter, down 28.7 percent from a year earlier.
It missed market expectations of about 13.4 trillion won (11.9 billion U.S. dollars), recording an earnings shock.
Revenue declined 10.6 percent over the year to 59 trillion won (52.5 billion U.S. dollars) in the December quarter.
Net income and earnings of each business would be announced later this month after external audit and approval by board of directors.
For the entire year of 2018, Samsung's revenue reached a new high of 243.5 trillion won (216.6 billion U.S. dollars), up 1.6 percent from the previous year.
Operating profit grew 9.8 percent over the year to hit a new record high of 58.9 trillion won (52.4 billion U.S. dollars) in 2018.
