Motorola Inc. posted a hefty loss in the third quarter Thursday, citing the continued troubles of its cell phone division. The company will postpone the planned spin-off of the unit, and cut more jobs.
Motorola (nyse: MOT - news - people ) lost $397 million, or 18 cents per share, in the July-September period. It had earned $60 million, or 3 cents per share, in the same period a year ago.
Sales fell 15 percent to $7.48 billion.
The loss included 23 cents of charges, mostly for restructuring costs. Without the charges, Motorola would have earned 5 cents a share, reflecting unexpectedly strong results in its non-cell phone operations. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had on average expected the company to earn 2 cents per share on revenue of $7.82 billion.
For the fourth quarter, Motorola said it expects to earn 2 cents to 4 cents per share. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had expected the company to earn 7 cents per share in the quarter, excluding items.
Shares of Motorola fell 29 cents, or 5.3 percent, to close at $5.17, even as broader markets ended up higher.
The job cuts are part of efforts to cut costs by $800 million next year, Chief Executive Greg Brown said.
Motorola sold 25.4 million cell phones in the third quarter, down from the 28.1 million it sold in the second quarter. The company had said it expected a slight decline. With an 8.5 percent market share, it lost the spot as No. 3 cell phone maker worldwide to Sony (nyse: SNE - news - people )Ericsson (nasdaq: ERIC - news - people ) in the quarter, according to research firm IDC. Nokia Corp. (nyse: NOK - news - people ) and Samsung Electronics Co. are No. 1 and No. 2, respectively.
Source:http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/10/30/ap5628981.html
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