Motorola met reduced earnings expectations. Thay said semi's were soft, hard to believe with those fast 500 MHz chips they make for Apple.
Motorola Earns in Line with Expectations
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Motorola Inc. (NYSE:MOT - news), the first of the Big Three mobile phone makers to report on its fourth quarter, on Wednesday posted earnings in line with lowered expectations, hurt by weaknesses in its semiconductor and handset units.
The world's second-largest handset maker said excluding special items it earned $335 million, or 15 cents a share, compared with $564 million, or 25 cents a share, a year ago, in line with analysts' lowered forecasts, according to research firm First Call/Thomson Financial.
The company, which competes with Finland's Nokia Corp. and Ericsson of Sweden, had cut its fourth-quarter earnings outlook by more than 40 percent last month, blaming a slowing semiconductor market and delays in cost-cutting in wireless phone production. Following the news, Motorola's shares fell to an eight-year low. The stock closed Wednesday up 2 percent at $21-3/16, before the earnings were released.
Prior to the latest warning, the second in the past few months, analysts were expecting 26 cents a share for the quarter. Analysts had previously expected 37 cents a share.
Motorola said its total sales were $10.1 billion, an increase of 11 percent from $9.1 billion a year earlier. |
