AT&T Inc. stopped all sales of Samsung Electronics Co.’s flagship Galaxy Note 7 over concerns about the smartphone’s safety.<\/p>\n
“Based on recent reports, we’re no longer exchanging new Note 7s at this time, pending further investigation of these reported incidents,” AT&T spokesman Fletcher Cook said in an e-mailed statement on Sunday. “We still encourage customers with a recalled Note 7 to visit an AT&T location to exchange that device for another Samsung smartphone or other smartphone of their choice.”<\/p>\n
Samsung started replacing the Note 7 last month because of a flaw in its lithium battery that can lead to overheating and pose a burn hazard to customers. Airlines have banned customers from using the smartphones on flights, and the evacuation of a Southwest Airlines Co. plane last week was blamed on smoke caused by a replacement device.<\/p>\n
Like many competitors, the second-largest U.S. wireless carrier had been already offering alternative smartphones to people who return Note 7 devices. On Friday, Bloomberg News reported that AT&T was considering halting sales of the Note 7.<\/p>\n
AT&T’s move is a further blow to Samsung. The wireless carrier is the third-biggest customer of the South Korean company, according to estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Samsung is already facing a bill that analysts estimate stretches into billions of dollars for the recall of 2.5 million Note 7 phones that it announced last month.<\/p>\n
Samsung said in a statement posted on its website that it understands the concern of the carriers and consumers over the newly released replacement Note 7 devices and the company will share findings as soon as possible.<\/p>\n
Samsung was able to rely on sales to other phone makers and computer manufacturers to offset the fallout from the Note 7 crisis in the three months through September, when operating profit exceeded analyst estimates. The stock has recovered since losing $22 billion of market value after the recall was announced on Sept. 1 and hasn’t significantly underperformed its Nasdaq technology peers in that period.<\/p>\n
The imbroglio coincides with mounting pressure from investor Paul Elliott Singer, who this week advocated a break-up of the complex Samsung empire.<\/p>\n
(c) 2016, Bloomberg \u00b7 Scott Moritz, <\/span>Alex Webb<\/span> <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" AT&T Inc. stopped all sales of Samsung Electronics Co.’s flagship Galaxy Note 7 over concerns about the smartphone’s safety. “Based on recent reports, we’re no longer exchanging new Note 7s at this time, pending further investigation of these reported incidents,” AT&T spokesman Fletcher Cook said in an e-mailed statement on Sunday. “We still encourage customers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5409,"featured_media":88895,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n