Motorola Posts Q3 Net Loss On Rising Sales

By Joseph Palenchar -- TWICE, 10/27/2011

Schaumburg, Ill. - Motorola Mobility continued to shrink its net losses in the third quarter on rising sales.

The consolidated net loss shrank to $32 million in the third quarter, from $56 million in the second quarter and $81 million in the first quarter. The third-quarter loss, however, was down negligibly from the year-ago net loss of $34 million.

In the mobile devices segment, the company posted a net operating loss of $41 million, down from a second-quarter operating loss of $85 million and a first-quarter loss of $89 million.

The losses included about $18 million in expenses attributable to the company's planned acquisition by Google. Motorola still expects the acquisition to close by the end of this year or early next.

Consolidated sales, consisting of mobile devices and home set-top box devices, rose 11 percent to $3.3 billion, while mobile device sales rose 20 percent to $2.4 billion.

During the quarter, mobile device shipments rose 27.5 percent to 11.6 million units compared with the year-ago quarter. That includes 4.8 million smartphones, up 26 percent from a year-ago 3.8 million smartphones.

During the quarter, the company also shipped about 100,000 Xoom tablets.