CHICAGO – Motorola Inc. (MOT) Tuesday posted a quarterly net loss due to the spinoff of its chip unit but sales rose and it stole share from its rivals in the growing global cell phone market.
Motorola also forecast stronger-than-expected sales in the current third quarter.
The world's second-largest maker of cell phones reported a second-quarter net loss of $203 million, or 9 cents a share, compared with a profit of $119 million, or 5 cents a share, in the year-earlier period.
Excluding one-time items, it earned 21 cents a share. The quarter included a noncash tax expense totaling almost $900 million, or 38 cents a share, as well as a tax benefit of $197 million, or 8 cents a share.
Sales in the quarter at the Schaumburg, Ill.-based company rose to $8.7 billion from $6.16 billion last year.
Analysts were expecting Motorola to post second-quarter earnings before one-time items of about 18 cents a share on sales of $8.44 billion, according to Reuters Estimates.
In April, Motorola forecast second-quarter sales of $8.2 billion to $8.6 billion and earnings of 14 cents to 18 cents a share, excluding the impact of the initial public offering of its semiconductor unit. Those estimates at the time dwarfed analysts' expectations.
Motorola forecast third-quarter sales of $8.4 billion to $8.8 billion and earnings according to generally accepted accounting principles of 15 cents to 19 cents a share. Analysts were expecting third-quarter sales of $8.41 billion, according to Reuters Estimates. The forecast excludes a portion of the chip business, which was partially spun off last week.
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