Samsung, surmounting legal woes, logs record profit on chips

SEOUL, South Korea -- After a tumultuous year when its chief was jailed and its fire-prone smartphones were recalled and then discontinued, Samsung Electronics has reported record high quarterly earnings thanks to booming demand for memory chips.

The record high profit Samsung reported for its semiconductor unit on Thursday likely pushed South Korea's biggest company ahead of in

industry leader Intel. Samsung also likely outstripped Apple in quarterly earnings for the first time as soaring use of connected devices and mobile data fueled demand for computer chips.

Samsung is on track to report its highest ever annual profit for the year. But while its bottom line is better than ever, the company’s leadership is in turmoil after its vice chairman and de facto chief Lee Jae-yong was jailed amid a corruption scandal that unseated former South Korean president, Park Geun-hye.

While Lee and Park battle allegations of bribery and other charges, Samsung is thriving thanks to tiny microchips called DRAM and NAND memory chips, which are needed to store and process data in servers and mobile devices.

The South Korean company said its AprilJune net income was 10.8 trillion won ($9.7 billion), up 85 percent from 5.8 trillion won a year earlier.

Analysts had forecast 10.1 trillion won in net profit according to FactSet, a financial data provider.

Operating profit jumped 73 percent over a year earlier to 14.1 trillion won ($12.7 billion) while sales rose 20 percent to 61 trillion won ($54.8 billion), in line with Samsung’s earlier guidance.