Samsung Note 7 recall could cost billions

Samsung’s worst-ever recall could cost the company as much as $17 billion after it halted sales of its flagship Galaxy Note 7 for a second time,.

Samsung announced the recall of 2.5 million Note 7s in early September following numerous reports of the phones catching fire. Today the outfit told mobile carriers to stop sales or exchange of the $882 device and asked users to shut off their phones while it investigated new reports of fires in replacement Note 7s.

Now the outfit faces a probe by US safety regulators, some investors and analysts predict Samsung may scrap the Note 7 and move on to successor models to limit the financial and reputational damage. This will presumably happen before the regulators rush in and ban the phone from sale.