Motorola Goes From Bad To Worse: Handset Spinoff Postponed; Ugly Q3; Q4 EPS Outlook Disappoints

Motorola’s (MOT) troubles continue to deepen. The beleaguered handset maker this morning posted Q3 sales of $7.5 billion, well short of the Street at $7.8 billion. The company lost 18 cents a share in the quarter, much worse than the expected profit of two cents a share; although the quarter reflects 23 cents a share in one-time charges. Motorola sees Q4 profits from continuing operations of 2-4 cents a share; the Street was looking for 7 cents. The company’s mobile devices segment had sales of $3.1 billion, down 31% from a year earlier, with an operating loss of $840 million, compared to an operating loss of $248 million in the year-ago quarter. The company shipped 25.4 million handsets in the quarter, down from 28 million in the previous quarter. The company also said that while it still has the strategic intent to spinoff the handset business, it no longer expect to accomplish the move in the 2009 third quarter, due to the macro environment, stress in the financial ... (link)