14 DAY TRIAL // Motorola, Inc. announced today its financial results for the fourth quarter of last year, reporting sales of $7.1 billion. At the same time, the company announced GAAP net loss of $3.6 billion during the quarter, or $1.57 per share. For the entire year, the company registered sales of $30.1 billion, while the GAAP net loss rose to $1.84 per share.
The mobile phone maker announced that during the fourth quarter it managed to generate positive operating cash flow of $201 million. For the entire year, it generated positive operating cash flow of $242 million and announced that it had ended the year with a total cash (Cash and cash equivalents plus Sigma fund (current and non-current) plus Short-term investments) position of $7.4 billion.
“In the fourth quarter, we generated positive operating cash flow of $201 million and ended the year with total cash of $7.4 billion,” stated Greg Brown, Motorola’s president & co-chief executive officer and CEO of Broadband Mobility Solutions, and Sanjay Jha, co-chief executive officer and CEO of Mobile Devices.
“In light of the economic climate and challenges we face, we have implemented aggressive measures to reduce costs and improve financial flexibility, particularly in Mobile Devices. The cost-reduction actions underway are expected to generate aggregate savings of approximately $1.5 billion in 2009,” they added.
The sales in the company's mobile device segment were $2.35 billion, 51 percent lower than the fourth quarter a year before. The division also registered an operating loss of $595 million, compared to $388 million the previous year. During the entire year, the division registered a 36 percent drop in sales compared to 2007, down to $12.1 billion. The operating loss was $2.2 billion, compared to $1.2 billion a year before. 19.2 million handsets were shipped by Motorola during the fourth quarter of 2008, which would account for a 6.5 market share.
Sanjay Jha further said that “We continue to take appropriate action to address the downturn in the global economy as well as the challenges related to our current Mobile Devices portfolio. We are aggressively developing innovative new products, and we are encouraged by the positive customer feedback on our smartphone roadmap.”
Motorola also announced that it expected to see a loss of .10 to .12 per share during the first quarter of 2009. The forecast does not include charges associated with the company’s operating expense reduction initiatives.