Motorola posted its second straight quarterly loss today as a lack of advanced mobile phones cost the company market share and dropped it into third place in the industry behind Nokia and Samsung Electronics.
Motorola's results were in line with lowered expectations following the company's earnings warning last week. But it further disappointed some analysts by failing to give a revenue forecast for the third quarter.
The company announced the closure of its software development facility in Cork - which employed 330 staff - earlier this year.
"The big worry remains the top line, and market share in handsets, where they're ceding a ton," said Cowen & Co analyst Matthew Hoffman. Motorola said it shipped 35.5 million mobile phones in the second quarter, giving it an estimated 13.5 per cent share of the global market, down from about 17.5 per cent in the first quarter.
The latest figures show Samsung has overtaken Motorola as the industry number, behind Nokia.
Motorola posted a second-quarter loss from continuing operations of $38 million, or 2 cents a share, compared with a year-earlier profit of $1.35 billion, or 54 cents per share. Including earnings from discontinued operations, Motorola's net loss was $28 million, or 1 cent per share. Net sales fell 19 percent to $8.7 billion.
Hoffman said it was worrying that Motorola appeared to lose market share not only to Nokia, but to smaller rivals such as LG Electronics and Sony Ericsson, a venture of Sony Corp and Ericsson.
After four straight disappointing quarters, Motorola Chief Executive Ed Zander has come under increasing pressure from shareholders, some of whom have called for his ouster.
In a conference call with analysts, Zander said in response to a question that Motorola was "doing the right things." But he added, "Make no mistake about it, there is still a lot more to do."
