By Mariella Moon / Source: Engadget

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Samsung was having a great year, thanks to the S7 and S7 Edge, enticing investors to toss their money into the pool. Unfortunately, the rest of 2016 hasn’t been going according to Samsung’s forecast. The Korean chaebol has lost a whopping $26 billion (with a B) of its market value since it announced the Galaxy Note 7 recall, according to financial data provider Factset. Its shares apparently dropped 6.9 percent between the Korean Exchange’s close on Friday (September 9th) and Monday, and its stock is currently priced at a bit above $1,300. That’s the lowest it’s been in months, although as you can see in the graph below the fold, the company has recovered a bit since yesterday.

Since around 2.5 million devices were shipped before the recall started, it might have alarmed investors and made them question Samsung’s future in the mobile business. Perhaps in an effort to assuage their fears, the company announced on Monday that Vice Chairman Jay Y. Lee will officially take over his father’s role as the company’s chief.

Samsung expected to maintain its high-end smartphone sales in the second half of 2016 with the Note 7’s release. And it probably would have succeeded — we called the latest in the series the “best phone Samsung has ever made.” However, the corporation had to issue a recall after reports came out that some units’ batteries were faulty, making them prone to overheating and exploding.

There are now over 70 reported cases of Note 7 devices overheating in the US alone. The government even stepped in and asked people to stop using their phones until they get safe replacements scheduled to come out on September 19th. Ordinary consumers have become so wary of the device, tech analyst Rod Enderle told Inquisitr that the company might have to announce the Note 7’s successor ahead of time in order to bounce back.

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