Samsung Embarks on Share Buyback

Samsung’s profit more than doubled in the last three months of 2016 on robust semiconductor sales and a recovery in its mobile business, giving it enough stamina to buy back 9.3 trillion won ($8 billion) of its own shares, according to Bloomberg.

Net income rose to 6.92 trillion won in the December quarter, largely buoyed by rising prices for memory chips and TV screens, the Suwon, South Korea-based company said in a statement Tuesday. Growth in demand for smartphone displays coupled with a weaker Korean won also lifted its component businesses. The repurchased shares, part of a shareholder return program unveiled in November, will be canceled, the company said.

The company’s reputation, already tarnished by the cessation of its fire-prone Galaxy Note 7 last year, took another hit when prosecutors began a probe into Samsung’s involvement in an influence-peddling scandal that’s led to the impeachment of the Korean president. The special prosecutor is proceeding with an investigation, even after a court rejected a request to arrest for Vice Chairman Jay Y. Lee on alleged bribery and embezzlement charges.