SCHAUMBURG, Ill. -- Motorola Inc. today posted a net loss of $533 million on slumping sales of $7.75 billion in the troubled first quarter of 2001. Both the revenues and Motorola's loss were worse than expected by Wall Street, according to estimates from analysts.
Motorola's semiconductor sales dropped 22% both sequentially and year-over-year to $1.48 billion in the first quarter. A year ago, Motorola chip revenues were $1.90 billion--about the same amount as in the fourth quarter of 2000. Motorola said its semiconductor orders plunged 49% to $1.1 billion in Q1 compared to bookings in the same period last year.
"Although cash flow from businesses, including net proceeds from investments, was positive in the first quarter, this quarter was a difficult one," said Robert L. Growney, president and chief operating officer of the Schaumburg-based electronics giant. "Order growth weakened across all of the company's business segments," he said, referring to Motorola's communications systems and semiconductor businesses.
Motorola's net sales were 11% lower than $8.75 billion in the first quarter of 2000. Compared to the prior quarter, Motorola's net sales were 23% sequentially lower than $10.06 billion in Q4 of 2000.
In the just-ended quarter, Motorola said its net loss totaled $533 million, or -$0.24 per share, including charges, compared to a net income of $448 million, or $0.20 per diluted share, in the same period last year. Excluding special items, Motorola said its loss would have been $206 million, or -$0.09 per share. Wall Street's estimate for a loss was at -$0.07 per share, based on a survey of analysts by First Call/Thomson Financial.
The Motorola Semiconductor Products Sector suffered an operating loss of $131 million vs. a profit of $128 million in the first quarter of 2000. Without releasing specific figures, Motorola said its chip orders were "down very significantly" in the Americas and Europe, "down significantly" in Asia/Pacific, and "up slightly" in Japan.
Motorola said first-quarter chip sales were up in Japan, down in Asia/Pacific and the Americas and "down significantly" in Europe. Sales among major markets were up in imaging/entertainment, down in transportation and networking/computing, and "down significantly" in standard embedded solutions and wireless products.
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