Thanks to the semiconductor boom that lasted until the third quarter last year,... Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics is expected to have accumulated a record-high amount of cash reserves... that could be used for R-and-D... or foreign mergers and acquisitions.br Industry researchers estimate Samsung's cash reserves as of last year... to have surpassed 92-and-a-half-billion U.S. dollars... an increase from the previous year of almost 25 percent.br Dividend payments also rose by nearly 50 percent from the previous year to a combined 9-billion dollars at the end of last year.