Motorola Inc extended its long losing streak Tuesday with a first-quarter loss of US$449 million, the result of a 21 percent plunge in sales that reflects continuing struggles in its cellphone and semiconductor businesses.
It was the company's fifth straight money-losing quarter.
The loss amounted to US$0.20 a share, compared with an even bigger loss a year ago of US$533 million, or US$0.24 a share.
Excluding certain items, including a charge of US$388 million for investment impairments, severance and other costs of its restructuring, Motorola pegged the loss at US$0.08 a share. Analysts queried by Thomson Financial/First Call had estimated a consensus US$0.12 loss, and Motorola shares rose slightly in after-hours trading.
Revenues tumbled to US$6.02 billion from US$7.68 billion. That included drops of 26 percent for semiconductors, which the company blamed on the industry's sharpest-ever decline, and 36 percent for broadband equipment.
Motorola pointed to some positive signs in its No. 1 business, cellphones, including a 1 percent rise in sales to US$2.3 billion and a third consecutive quarter of positive operating earnings. The company introduced six new phones in the quarter and also made some small gains in market share.
But it remains far behind market leader Nokia, and cellphone orders declined US$2.5 billion from a year earlier as an industrywide slump complicated its comeback.
"These are challenging and turbulent markets worldwide, and economic and political viability makes predictions uncertain," said Christopher Galvin, Motorola's chairman and chief executive officer. "Still, we continue to believe that Motorola will return to profitability during the second half of 2002 and be profitable for the full year, excluding special items and barring any unforeseen political or economic disruptions."
Morningstar analyst Todd Bernier said the results are "more of the same" and don't show the predicted recovery as likely.
"With numbers like this, there's no reason to believe that," he said. "It's just weakness right across the board."
As part of its lengthy restructuring, the company has been cutting staff -- trimming its work force from a peak of 150,000 in August 2000 to a now-targeted 101,600 by later this year.
Further cost cuts could be disclosed when company executives discuss the results in a conference call with analysts.
Buoyed by bullish news for chipmakers and technology companies, Motorola's stock jumped US$1.34, or 9.8 percent, to close at US$15 a share on the New York Stock Exchange before the earnings report was released.
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