Motorola exceeds expectations with $8.1B in Q2 sales

By Gabrielle Kalika

August 1, 2008

Ringing sales

Motorola announced its second-quarter sales of $8.1 billion, exceeding expectations.

The handset maker ended the second quarter with a net cash position of $3.6 billion. Motorola also saw an overall positive operating cash flow of $204 million, and a total cash position of $7.8 billion.

Motorola unexpectedly experienced a 7 percent sales growth in home and networks mobility to $2.7 billion as well, apparently driven by sales growth and operating margin expansion.

This growth was also driven by shipments of 4.9 million digital entertainment devices, due to continued strong demand for HD, HD/DVR and IPTV devices.

The handset manufacturer also attributes growth to such advances as the launch of 10 new products to key markets worldwide, including new 3G devices and the ROKR E8.

The company also refreshed the Ming series, which has sold an estimated 8 million handsets, and launched three touch screen handsets, the Ming A1600 and Ming A1800, as well as the Moto A810.
    
Motorola also began shipping the Motozine ZN5, a mobile device collaborated with Kodak, which enables consumers to shoot, edit and share pictures.

Enterprise mobility solutions sales grew 6 percent and operating earnings grew 24 percent from last year. This can be attributed to the estimated 28.1 million handsets that were shipped this year.

A reported $4 million, or $0.00 per share GAAP net earnings, were recorded for this quarter, including net charges of 2 cents per share.

Finally, Motorola saw a 6 percent growth in enterprise mobility solutions segment sales, raising sales to $2 billion. Operating earnings increased to $377 million, a 24 percent increase from earnings of $303 million last year.

On the downside, mobile devices segment sales fell 22 percent to $3.3 billion. The segment reported an operating loss of $346 million, compared to an operating loss of $332 million in the year-ago quarter.

For the third quarter, the company expects to report earnings from these operations in the range of $0.00 to 2 cents per share, and earnings from continuing operations of 6 cents to 8 cents per share for the full year.

These estimations exclude any reorganization of business charges associated with Motorola’s operating expense reduction initiatives.