Telecommunications and semiconductor company Motorola Inc. has stayed profitable in its first quarter of fiscal 2003 despite posting revenue slightly lower than in the same quarter last year.
For the quarter, Motorola reported revenue of US$6.04 billion, 2.3 percent down on the $6.18 billion achieved in the first quarter of 2002. Net profit was $21 million, or $0.01 per share, compared to a loss of $184 million in the year-earlier quarter.
Motorola also reported $148 million in after-tax income from special items, primarily related to the sale of some of its Nextel Communications Inc. shares, giving it a profit of $169 million including the special items.
Motorola executives said that business conditions remained very uncertain, but predicted that the company would stay profitable through its 2003 fiscal year. The company projected that revenue for the upcoming second quarter will be between $6.4 billion and $6.6 billion, well down on last year’s figure, with profit in the range of $0.01 per share to $0.03 per share.
Despite Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Christopher Galvin saying that the business market is struggling with “a geopolitical environment of increasing uncertainty”, Motorola’s recent financial results are much better than in previous years, which saw the company post losses of $2.5 billion in 2002 and $3.9 billion in 2001.