Post a CommentMotorola back in the black with Q3 income, but still far from Q3 2006 level
By Colleen Taylor, Contributing Editor -- Electronic News, 10/25/2007
Buoyed by the slimming effects of its recent job cuts, mobile phone maker Motorola Inc. today posted Q3 financial results that showed some improvements over its dismal Q2 report, yet still paled in comparison to the strength of the Q3 report the company issued last year.
Motorola had Q3 sales of $8.8 billion, down 16 percent year-over-year from its Q3 2006 results and up 1 percent from its Q2 sales of $8.7 billion. Motorola's net income for Q3 was $60 million, an improvement over its Q2 net loss of $28 million, yet still far from its Q3 2006 net income of $968 million.
The company's mobile devices segment, which had been a major cause of Motorola's recent financial woes, displayed growing strength in Q3. Motorola said that segment's sales were $4.5 billion, up 4.6 percent from Q2's sales but still down 36 percent compared with the year-ago quarter. The mobile devices segment incurred an operating loss of $138 million, an improvement from the segment's Q2 loss of $264 million, but down from Q3 2006's operating earnings of $843 million.
"We are pleased with the improvement in the financial performance of mobile devices and we look forward to building upon the progress we have made," Ed Zander, Motorola's chairman and CEO, said in a statement. "With our focus on these key opportunities and the initiatives we are taking in mobile devices we will further improve our performance and create long-term shareholder value."
Indeed, the company has been working aggressively of late to cut costs and combat its recent series of slumping earnings reports. In September, the company entered into a definitive deal to sell its embedded communications computing business to electronics maker Emerson Electric Co. for $350 million in cash. Earlier this month, Motorola revealed it had slashed 5,100 jobs so far this year as part of its ongoing "cost reduction initiative."
