Samsung Electronics gave an upbeat forecast for this year with its revenue reaching 63.6 trillion won (approx. US$60 mil), a 28-percent rise from last year. The electronics maker also said it will raise its R&D spending to 6.1 trillion won, up 12 percent from last year. In spite of the fair overall performance of the fourth quarter of 2005 and a positive outlook for this year, Samsung saw a gap widening between its core businesses and others. While revenue from its three key businesses - memory chip, mobile phone, liquid- crystal display (LCD) - remained as strong as they had been in 2004, Samsung continued to suffer in its household appliances. Its brown and white goods sales recorded a net operating loss of 400 billion won, five times its losses recorded in 2004. Sales and net income of the semiconductor business increased to 5.1 trillion won and 1.6 trillion won, respectively. Its latest quarterly net profit soared 36 percent to 2.6 trillion won on the largest-ever revenue of 15.5 trillion won thanks to strong demand for memory chip, mobile phone and display panel sales. The world's largest memory-chip maker passed the 15 trillion won mark in quarterly revenue and posted 15.5 trillion won in the fourth quarter of 2005, up 7 percent from the third quarter. Its net profit of 2.6 trillion won is up 36 percent from the previous quarter. Its operating profit was 2.14 trillion won, lower than had been expected. Throughout last year, the company recorded a 30-percent drop in annual net profit from 2004 to 7.6 trillion won. The robust fourth-quarter result helped Samsung's yearly revenue to reach 57.5 trillion won, slightly lower than 2004. The sluggish performances, triggered by an industry slowdown in the first six months of the year, pulled down its fullyear net profit. In 2004, the company made a recordhigh annual profit of 10.8 trillion won, becoming the first Korean company earning more than 10 trillion won in profit.