Samsung 3Q Guidance Strong On Components And Mobile As CEO Departs

By any measure, the news headlines were significant ones for Samsung Electronics last week.

As reported by TechCrunch, the company made two separate announcements Thursday. In one, the company offered up strong guidance for third-quarter results tied to its key components and mobile businesses. As part of the other announcement, the company released a resignation letter from Oh-Hyun Kwon, who has served as CEO for approximately five years, which said the company has been beset by an “unprecedented crisis inside out.”

The company said it expects earnings for the quarter that ended September 30 to come in at 62 trillion won, which is roughly $55 billion USD. The bottom line should be as much as 14.5 trillion won ($12.8 billion), up 300 percent year over year.

TechCrunch noted that the growth comes as the company continues to sell components to smartphone rivals, including Apple. In addition, smartphones and devices, such as the S8, should help boost results.

But amid the numbers, management changes helped dominate headlines, as Kwon’s letter said that his departure from the CEO role was “something I had been thinking long and hard about for quite some time. It has not been an easy decision, but I feel I can no longer put it off. As we are confronted with unprecedented crisis inside out, I believe that [the] time has now come for the company [to] start anew, with a new spirit and young leadership to better respond to challenges arising from the rapidly changing IT industry.”

The resignation follows the August announcement that Samsung’s vice chairman Jay Y. Lee, who had been found guilty of bribery, embezzlement and other crimes, received a five-year jail term.