Motorola’s sales jump 26% to $8.6 billion

COMMUNICATIONS giant Motorola yesterday reported sales of $8.624 billion in the third quarter of 2004. This is a 26% increase from sales of $6.829 billion in the third quarter of 2003.

Motorola also reported net earnings of $479 million, or 20 cents per share, in the third quarter of 2004, an increase of 313% compared to third-quarter 2003 earnings of $116 million, or 5 cents per share. Third-quarter 2004 earnings include:

Income of $195 million, or 5 cents per share, from the sale of investments.

Net expense of $81 million, or 2 cents per share, related to the retirement of $1.7 billion of long-term debt and cancellation of associated interest rate swaps.

Expense of $67 million, or 3 cents per share, related to the impairment of goodwill.

Expense of $55 million, or 1 cent per share, for previously-announced severance charges.

A tax benefit of $39 million, or 2 cents per share, resulting from the reversal of tax reserves due to the settlement of certain tax audit items.

Expense of $19 million, or 1 cent per share, related to FSL separation costs.

The group reported net earnings of $116 million, or 5 cents per share, in the third quarter of 2003. As previously reported in Motorola’s third-quarter 2003 earnings release, third-quarter 2003 earnings included net special-item charges of $27 million, or 1 cent per share.

Motorola chairman and chief executive Ed Zander said: “This is our third consecutive quarter of strong sales and pre-tax earnings improvement. Customers are responding to our portfolio of new products and technologies by giving us market share growth in several areas.

For the remainder of 2004 the group is forecasting sales of between $9.3 billion and $9.6 billion, an increase of approximately 16% to 20% compared to the fourth quarter of 2003, and earnings per share in the range of 23 cents to 26 cents, compared to 20 cents in the fourth quarter of 2003.