By 
SEOUL — Samsung Electronics Co.
005930,
+0.17%
said it expects its fourth-quarter profit to plunge as the firm’s mainstay memory-chip and smartphone businesses face a sharp pullback in demand, showing the extent of the global tech downturn after pandemic highs.
The South Korean tech giant on Friday forecast its operating profit in the quarter ending Dec. 31 to drop by 69% from the prior year to 4.3 trillion won, the rough equivalent of $3.4 billion.
Revenue for the October-December quarter is expected to decline year-over-year by 8.6% to 70 trillion won, the company said.
Samsung’s estimated results were far below market forecasts. Analysts polled by FactSet were, on average, expecting Samsung to report roughly 7.1 trillion won in operating profit and 73.1 trillion won in revenue. The company is scheduled to report its full earnings later this month.
Samsung is considered a bellwether for the tech world. It is a major component supplier to companies such as Apple Inc.
AAPL,
-1.06%
and is the world’s top seller of smartphones, TVs and a major player in many other areas of consumer electronics.
An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.
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