Samsung told us it was pulling for record profits this quarter, and the final numbers line up: according to the company's Q4 2011 financial statements, it managed 47.3 trillion won (around $42 billion) in sales, and 5.3 trillion won ($4.7 billion) in operating profit. That's just for a quarter, mind you: over the full year, the company took home 16.25 trillion won ($14.5 billion) on revenue of 165 trillion won ($147 billion), after taxes.
Samsung's profits here came from the many diverse businesses under its umbrella, of course, but the company highlighted a few: its mobile business grew sales 54 percent (and profit 79 percent) on the back of the Galaxy S II smartphone and its varied kin. Though the HDTV business isn't kind to some companies these days, Samsung also said it saw its televisions do just fine, with "strong TV sales in developed markets during year-end peak season despite concerns," and 19 percent growth in its Display Panel business there. Computers didn't do so well, with the company still holding onto an oversupply of DRAM, and weak PC sales. Going forward, Samsung says it's going to expand its LTE presence in handsets, develop more mass-market smartphones and LED TVs. While alphabet soup isn't our favorite dish and we hope that LED really means OLED, it sounds like the company might know what it's doing.