Motorola Taking $101 Million Charge
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Motorola said it will take a pretax charge of $101 million in its second quarter after cutting 2,100 jobs.
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(InfoWorld) - In an extension of a cost-cutting program it began in January, Motorola said Wednesday it would lay off 4,000 more workers. The move will help the company to save $600 million annually starting in 2008, including additional money-saving measures like prioritizing its investments, continuing discretionary-spending controls, cutting general and administrative expenses, and site rationalization. Although it trails only Nokia in sales of wireless handsets, Motorola has struggled to translate its sales into profits. The company began this restructuring program after watching its profit drop sharply, from $1.2 billion in the fourth quarter of 2005 toÂ $624 million for the fourth quarter of 2006. The results were even worse for the first quarter of 2007, as Motorola posted a loss of $366 million compared to its profit of $849 million for the same period a year ago. In a search for change,Â the company replaced its CFO in March. At that time, chief executive Ed Zander blamed the problems on dropping prices for low-end cell phones, and Motorola's decision to give up market share instead of entering a price war with competing vendors. Also on Wednesday, Motorola said it would finish making the 3,500 job cuts it had previously announced by June 30, contributing to an estimated $400 million in annual savings. The restructuring will also incur its own costs. Motorola will subtract a one-time charge of $300 million from its savings, to pay for severance packages and other costs of the workforce reductions. "Today's actions are an update to the commitment we made during our first-quarter earnings conference call -- to drive out additional costs -- and a continuation of the plan we announced in January," Motorola'sÂ CFO Tom Meredith said in a release. Meredith promised the cuts would not distract Motorola from keeping its focus on long-term plans in customer service and support, product quality and research and development. Â
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By Anna Marie Kukec  akukec@@dailyherald.com  Speed counts. So does style. And Motorola Inc. leveraged both Tuesday.
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AT&amp;T, the US telecommunications group, yesterday said it will take a restructuring charge of about $1.1 billion in the third quarter mainly to cover the cost of about 7,000 job cuts and revalue downward its assets by $11.
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Sprint Nextel Corp  said on Thursday it will take a material goodwill impairment charge representing a substantial portion, and potentially all, of the $31 billion goodwill on its balance sheet.
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CHICAGO -- Motorola Inc.'s venture capital arm aims to boost its investments to more than $100 million this year, betting on technologies including automotive electronics, high-speed wireless communications, and advanced optical systems.
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(InfoWorld) - Amid increasing competition in a fickle cell phone market, Motorola expects to report a loss for its mobile devices business in 2007 and now estimates that second quarter sales will be lower than expected. The number two handset maker said on Wednesday that second quarter sales for the company would be $8.6 billion to $8.7 billion, instead of $9.4 billion as previously expected. That drop in expected sales is the result of lower handset sales, particularly in Asia and Europe, Motorola said. In the second quarter, Motorola expects to report sales of 35 million to 36 million handsets. That will lead to a larger operating loss for the mobile device business in the second quarter compared to the first quarter, it said. During the first quarter, Motorola sold 45.5 million phones. At the time, the company said it foresaw a gradual recovery of its mobile phone business throughout the rest of the year with expectations of a profitable year. Motorola now expects a second quarter generally accepted accounting principles loss per share in the range of $0.02 to $0.04. The company will announce its earnings for the second quarter 2007 on July 19 and will offer further details then, it said. Motorola also announced that it named a new president for the mobile division: Stu Reed, formerly executive vice president of integrated supply chain for Motorola. Reed's predecessor, Ron Garriques, left the company in February to head up Dell's global consumer division. Prior to its first quarter earnings report, Motorola also had to warn that sales would be lower than expected. It made some executive changes then, including the appointment of a new president. Earlier in the year, Motorola had implemented a new plan to help it improve profitability, but that plan wasn't working out, the company said during the first quarter earnings warning. Most of the large handset makers are struggling to keep profits up as sales in established markets like Europe stagnate as most people there already have phones. The companies are increasingly branching out into emerging markets, such as India and China, but they must sell their phones at lower prices to win customers there. That's squeezing profit margins."The only real growth is at the low end, which means there's nice unit growth, but the dollar growth is not there," said Will Strauss, an analyst with Forward Concepts. "This year is a soft year for the cell phone market, in spite of Apple," he said. Apple's hugely hyped iPhone is expected to sell around 10 million units through next year, which may sound like a lot. But this number is dwarfed by the approximately 150 million units that companies like Nokia sell in a year, Strauss said. The iPhone isn't affecting the sales of the biggest cell phone companies, but it may help companies like Motorola realize what they need to do to improve their prospects, he said. The only way that the mobile phone companies can grow profits in saturated markets is to "convince everybody that they need a new cell phone with new bells and whistles," Strauss said. "The iPhone is raising awareness of what the future cell phones are going to look like." In addition, Motorola is notorious for producing hit phones, like the Razr, that sell well but then failing to follow up with additional models that continue the momentum. "They rode too long on the Razr," Strauss said. But the handset maker could get a boost later in the year when it starts selling the Razr 2, which Avi Greengart, an analyst at Current Analysis, said is a big improvement on the first version. Motorola is likely to learn from its mistakes the first time around too. "In the past, they really let the original Razr run away with volume as opposed to maintaining it as a premium fashion phone," he said. "I think this time they're going to resist the rapid price drop." This story was updated on July 11, 2007. Â
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BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion  has sued Motorola , over what the Canadian company says are patent infringements and "exorbitant" licensing fees, according to court documents.
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Mobile phone maker Motorola Inc  said on Tuesday that two of its subsidiaries had sued Aruba Networks Inc  for infringement of patents involving short-range wireless network technologies.
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Motorola Inc. announced Tuesday plans to cut 1,000 jobs worldwide and take a charge of $50 million for severance benefits. The job cuts are part of a restructuring resulting from the spin off of its semiconductor division into Freescale Semiconductor.
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Chicago - Motorola will cut 1 000 jobs and take a charge of $50 million (R320.5 million) for severance benefits as it moves to complete a spinoff of its money-losing semiconductor unit, the company said.
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By Keiko Morris, Newsday, Melville, N.Y.  Sep. 20--Motorola Inc.
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AT&amp;T said yesterday it has agreed to a $100 million settlement of a shareholder lawsuit that accused the telecommunications giant and its former chairman, C. Michael Armstrong, of misleading
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With a view to focusing on its wireless business, Motorola Inc. said it plans to slash 1,000 jobs, or 1 percent of its staff, and absorb charges of about $50 million.
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BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion   has sued Motorola , over what the Canadian  company says are patent infringements and "exorbitant"  licensing fees, according to court documents.
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Are there more changes ahead for Motorola?
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Motorola Inc. will cut 1,000 jobs worldwide and take a charge of $50 million for severance benefits, officials said Tuesday. Motorola is completing a spinoff of its chip operations, now operating independently