Samsung’s first quarter results show why companies are fighting to acquire Toshiba’s memory business in Japan. The Korean firm, the world’s largest memory supplier, announced its highest quarterly profit for three years, mainly because of the strength of its chip division, and particularly its memory products. The semiconductor division reported its highest ever operating profit of KRW6.31 trillion ($5.6bn), up 140% year-on-year on the back of a boom in sales of both DRAM and NAND flash memory soared amid a boom in memory chips. Total semiconductor sales of KRW15.7 trillion won ($13.9bn) were up 40% year-on-year. This enabled Samsung to post a group operating profit of KRW9.9 trillion ($8.7bn), up 48% compared with the first quarter of 2016. Total sales…