SEOUL — Samsung Electronics slashed its quarterly profit estimate by a third on Wednesday, soaking up a $2.3bn hit from ditching its flagship smartphone, in what could be one of the costliest product safety failures in tech history.Quantifying the financial pain of Tuesday’s move to scrap the Galaxy Note 7 smartphone after a global recall and weeks of mounting problems, the world’s top smartphone maker said it expected that its July-September operating profit was 5.2-trillion won ($4.7bn), down from the 7.8-trillion won it estimated five days ago.Samsung said in a statement the 2.6-trillion won ($2.3bn) guidance cut reflects the sales and earning impact it currently expects from the decision to permanently halt sales of the $882 Note 7 device. Its third-quarter revenue estimate was also cut to 47-trillion won from 49-trillion won previously.The new earnings guidance is 30% below third-quarter 2015’s operating profit."Nobody could have expected the figure that Samsung just guided for...
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