Motorola Inc, Schaumburg, Illinois, has reported first-quarter net income down 5.0% at $171m on revenue up 5.0% at $7.23bn. Earnings per share dipped 6.7% to $0.28, beating the $0.24 First Call consensus estimate. Year-ago results include non-operating income from the sale of assets and the favorable settlement of patent claims. Net of the one-time gains, results for the most recent quarter show a 20.4% rise over net income of $142m, or $0.23 per share, in the year-ago quarter.
Motorola said it is beginning to see the fruits of its previously-announced restructuring, which will see overall staff cut by 15%. Most of the job cuts have been carried out ahead of schedule. The quarter was also buoyed by strong sales of digital wireless phones, which led to an 8% increase in revenue for the personal communications unit at $2.6bn. Orders in that business segment also rose 16% and operating profit grew 23%.
Network systems sales, meanwhile, rose 5% to $1.6bn and operating profit rose 29%. Another big boost was provided by semiconductor systems, which saw sales up 4% at $1.9bn and orders were 11% higher. An operating profit of $47m was the first in five quarters for the unit.
