Motorola's Annual Analyst Meeting May Ignite Iridium Fireworks
Schaumburg, Illinois, July 31 (Bloomberg) -- Iridium LLC, the global satellite-telephone company, is casting a shadow over Motorola Inc.'s annual analysts' meeting Tuesday in Chicago because of questions about the venture's viability.
With Motorola's shares up about 50 percent this year and its restructuring taking hold, analysts, investors and executives have every reason, except Iridium, to smile. Motorola has about $2.2 billion in financial guarantees in Iridium and is considering increasing its 18 percent stake to 40 percent by guaranteeing another $400 million to keep it aloft.
Iridium has failed to attract subscribers because of the cost of its phones and high per-minute charges. Motorola, the No. 2 cellular telephone maker and No. 3 computer-chip producer, is one of 19 companies with an equity investment in Iridium.
''Iridium will be the hottest topic since everything else seems to be on track,'' said Edward Snyder, a Hambrecht & Quist LLC. Analyst, who rates Motorola ''top buy.''
The meeting, which is expected to attract about 200 analysts and investors, will begin about 8 a.m. Chicago time in a hotel near O'Hare International Airport. It will last until 1 p.m.
Turnaround
A year ago, Motorola was in the middle of reorganizing its businesses and slashing its workforce by about 24,000 employees, while it played catch up to Nokia Oyj, whose spiffy digital cell phones dethroned Motorola and its aging analog phones from the No. 1 position.
In October, Motorola's shares slumped to 38 3/8, their lowest since May 1993. Last year, the company had a loss of $962 million, it first annual loss in 13 years. Its shares rose 9/16 to 91 1/4 yesterday.
Motorola discarded or sold less-profitable semiconductor lines, some decades old, and contracted out production to concentrate on higher-margin chips and new product development.
During this year's second quarter, sales in the semiconductor unit increased 9 percent to $2 billion and orders rose 20 percent to $2.1 billion. The unit had a profit of $80 million, compared with a loss of $899 million, which included a large restructuring charge in the year-earlier quarter.
''Expect to see a lot of detailed information on how the cost-cutting is going and what new digital cellular products they have coming out,'' said Chris Chaney, an A.G. Edwards analyst, who rates Motorola ''maintain.''
Earlier this month on a conference call with analysts, Motorola said it expects to meet profit forecasts this year with sales in its semiconductor business at least matching industry growth of 15 percent to 19 percent in 2000.
The company also forecast third-quarter profit of 51 cents a share and sales of $7.8 billion. For the full year, it expects to meet estimates of $2 a share on sales of $31.6 billion.
Jul/31/1999 9:58
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