Motorola Inc. on Wednesday reported a first-quarter net loss of $181 million, or 8 cents per share, compared to earnings of $686 million, or 27 cents per share, the same time last year.
This marks the equipment maker’s first quarterly loss since 2004.
Motorola recorded revenue of $9.43 billion, down from $9.61 billion. The company blamed the problems on troubles in its mobile devices division. Indeed, the news was not unexpected. Motorola in mid-March shook up its leadership and revised its first-quarter projections.
“As I said a few weeks ago, the performance in our Mobile Devices business in the first quarter is unacceptable and we are committed to restoring it to an appropriate level of profitability,” said Ed Zander, Motorola chairman and CEO, in a prepared statement.
Motorola said it shipped 45.4 million handsets, down 31 percent from its record 65.7 million in the final quarter of 2006.
Motorola Inc. www.motorola.com
