The news from Schaumburg, Illinois is altogether more cheerful, and from there, Motorola Inc reports that a 25% increase in sales amid growing demand for its semiconductors and other products gave the company record second quarter earnings of $0.83 per share, up from $0.54 a year ago (figures in page five): net margin on sales rose to 5.7% from 4.6% in the year-ago quarter; sales rose 40% in its General Systems Sector, to $1,180m as worldwide cellular orders grew rapidly for infrastructure and subscriber equipment; Communications Segment sales were up 23% to $1,130m as orders rose 22% and operating profits rose; the Government & Systems Technology Group reported a 2% sales increase to $147m with orders off 4%, and operating losses widened as a result of increased development costs for the Iridium global satellite system; sales rose 40% in the Automotive and industrial Electronics Group, but the Information Systems Group recorded a 2% sales decline, to $157m, on a 1% decline in orders, so that questions are raised over how much longer it will persist with it – either expand it substantially by acquisition or sell it seems to be the consensus; Motorola said it achieved double-digit order growth in all major regions for its Semiconductor Products Sector as orders rose 30% to an all-time high with signal processors, high-performance microprocessors and standard-cell products leading the way.
