By Se Young Lee SEOUL (Reuters) – Samsung Electronics Co Ltd said on Friday its fourth-quarter operating profit likely leapt 50 percent from a year earlier to its highest in more than three years, beating expectations on strong memory chip and display sales. The South Korean technology giant said October-December profit was likely 9.2 trillion won ($7.8 billion), the highest since the third quarter of 2013 and well above the 8.2 trillion won tipped by a Thomson Reuters StarMine SmartEstimate from a survey of 21 analysts. The upbeat outlook comes despite the anticipated $2.1 billion profit hit the firm earlier forecast for the quarter due to the withdrawal of the fire-prone Galaxy Note 7 premium smartphone in October, one of the biggest product safety failures in tech history.