Motorola sales climb on handset success

January 19, 2005

Following yesterday's upbeat announcement from Sony Ericsson, US mobile handset and kit vendor Motorola has handed in a similarly glowing report card for the three months to the end of December 2004. On a "continuing operations" basis, the company grew revenues to US$8.4 billion in the quarter, up by US$1.9 billion compared to the same period in 2003. Net income for the last three months of 2004 was US$654 million compared with US$489 million a year earlier.

The company said that the main driver behind its growth has been strong sales of its range of 20 new cell phones, particularly its much-vaunted, ultra-thin Razr handset, which CEO, Ed Zander, claimed had "greatly exceeded" even their expectations. The company said it shipped 31.8 million handsets in the fourth quarter, up 42% on its performance a year ago.

A further driver behind Motorola's recent growth in sales has been its success in winning contracts for Push-to-Talk handsets and equipment. According to a statement today from the company, it has won 23 Push-to-Talk contracts with network operators in 27 countries and territories; this includes recently announced wins with VIVO in Brazil and Turkcell in Turkey.

Motorola also announced that its full year sales, on a continuing operations basis, had climbed 35% to reach US$31.3 billion. Full year profits were US$1.54 billion, up 72% from US$893 million a year earlier. This enabled the company to increase it annual earnings per share figure to US£0.91 compared to US$0.39 for the full year 2003. The US-based vendor also reported that it had reduced its total debt by US$2.7 billion and had ended the year with a net cash position of US$5.4 billion.