Earnings: Motorola Reports Net Loss; Handset Sales Down; Spinoff Delayed

Motorola (NYSE: MOT) reported a third quarter net loss of $397 million, or $0.18 cents a share compared with a profit of $40 million or 3 cents a share in the same quarter a year ago. Sales dropped 15 percent to $7.48 billion from $8.81 billion a year ago. Motorola’s struggling handset unit shipped 25.4 million phones in Q3, compared with 37.2 million units a year ago, for an estimated market share of 8.4 percent. In the same quarter, rival Nokia (NYSE: NOK) shipped 117.8 million units, Samsung shipped 51.3, Sony (NYSE: SNE) Ericsson (NSDQ: ERIC) shipped 25.7 million, while LG (SEO: 066570) shipped 23 million. The business reported sales of $3.1 billion, falling 31 percent compared to the year-ago quarter. It also saw an operating loss of $840 million, compared to an operating loss of $248 million in the year-ago quarter. Motorola plans to postpone its spinoff. Co-ceo Sanjay Jha said in a statement: “While our strategic intent to separate the company remains intact, we are no longer targeting the third quarter of 2009, primarily due to the macro- economic environment, stresses in the financial markets and the changes underway in Mobile Devices.

Other Earnings Highlights:

-- Home and Networks Mobility sales of $2.4 billion down 1 percent compared to the year-ago quarter; operating earnings increased to $263 million, an increase of 65 percent compared to the third quarter of last year.

-- Enterprise Mobility Solutions sales of $2.0 billion up 4 percent compared to the year-ago quarter.; operating earnings increased to $403 million, an increase of 23 percent compared to the third quarter of last year.

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