Motorola lowered its projections for the global mobile phone shipments in 2001, after a review, the company said it now expected to ship 380 million to 400 million mobile phones this year, down from the 400 million to 425 million, which it had forecasted earlier in the year. Further, the company also announced that it had sold its remaining stake in Telefonica in its ongoing effort to reduce its $2 billion debts.
Motorola posted a loss of $153 million in the third quarter, ended September 29, or 7 cents a share. This compared with an after-tax profit of $643 million in the year-ago quarter. Sales were down 22% at $7.4 billion, compared with $9.5 billion during the year-ago period.
There was one piece of good news in the quarter for Motorola, as the company’s handset business returned to the black. However, the overall picture was not good. The figures from the firm’s broadband communications segment, semiconductor products and integrated electronic systems business were all well down on last year’s results.
