Motorola manages $162 million Q2 profit, turns that frown upside down

It's a good day here, because rather than poor 'ol Sad Moto we get to bust out Happy Moto, as Motorola has released some good news in its Q2 financial report. Earnings were $162 million, up from $26 million this time last year. That sounds like a big jump, but compared to overall sales of $5.4 billion you can see things are still rather tight -- especially since those sales were down from $5.5 billion the year before and all-important mobile device sales figures dropped six percent to $1.7 billion. Also, these numbers were boosted by a "significant legal settlement" valued at $228 million. Maybe intellectual property wasn't the only thing Moto got from RIM?

[Brother Unit No 4 Posted Jul 29th 2010 9:27AM]

I wish I understood why some of you guys can't just let Motorola enjoy it's victory.

[Perspective Posted Jul 29th 2010 9:32AM]

So in other words, despite 30 years experience in mobile phones, Motorola made more money from lawsuits last quarter than device sales.

Bloated. Slow. Inefficient.

[idoozy Posted Jul 29th 2010 9:38AM]

MOT should be thanking GOOG big time. If it wasn't for google, all these companies would not be doing well.

[MikeUK Posted Jul 29th 2010 11:16AM]

@idoozy

You might want to read the linked article. Sales of Motorola's mobile devices is actually DOWN 6%, leading to an operating loss of $109m. It is only due to a significant legal settlement of $228m that Motorlola were able to post a profit. As sales are down 6%, I wouldn't be so quick to bleat that Google is Motorola's saviour. Quite the opposite.

[rgz175 Posted Jul 29th 2010 1:29PM]

@MikeUK

It would have been a lot worse if it were not for Android.

[SharonW Posted Jul 29th 2010 2:13PM]

@MikeUK - Sales are down 6% year over year due to the dumb phones they sell, NOT Androids. Android sales INCREASED from 2.3 million in the first quarter to 2.7 million in the second. The average selling price for Androids also increased Q over Q from $192 to $207. Androids are turning MOT profitable from the death spiral they were in last year. Best thing they ever did.

[brutek Posted Jul 29th 2010 9:51AM]

Now they need to show consecutive quarterly profit growth if they still want to hit their "Motorola Mobility" IPO.

[ryanbballer54 Posted Jul 29th 2010 10:34AM]

I'll rejoice when they update my Cliq to at least 2.1 :p

[darthgault Posted Jul 29th 2010 11:55AM]

@ryanbballer54

yeah ... hold your breath with that one.

[coolngood4u81 Posted Jul 29th 2010 10:36AM]

DroidX doing great and Android is there is to beat apple...

[idoozy Posted Jul 29th 2010 10:44AM]

@coolngood4u81

why must you bring apple into this?

[scorpiostar Posted Jul 29th 2010 10:59AM]

Good for motorola. I would like to see an American company back on top in the wireless industry. They are finally making good high end products again. Android is what they needed to become relevant again.

[jaffreywali Posted Jul 29th 2010 11:53AM]

1. All their profit came from a lawsuit.

2. They sold 2.7M smartphones, Apple sold over 3M iPads! Not to mention 8.4M iphones. Are they even in the same league?

3. It's interesting that both Verizon and Motorola (exclude lawsuit revenue) reported losses, while Att and Apple reported record profits. Clearly iOS is bringing in the $. Sprint too didn't do all that great....HTC was the only exception and eked out a tny sliver of profits from their operations.

It does look like Android is kicking the iOS butt in the US! LOL

The Android fans I've noticed trash talk every single day on every single tech site and then the numbers get reported and the situation is totally different! Then they forget the numbers and it's all rumors and surveys and other non substantiated data....the cycle just goes on.

[DjGruv Posted Jul 29th 2010 1:31PM]

@jaffreywali I agree

[eTvvitter Posted Jul 29th 2010 3:22PM]

I think moto has done a great job these years

[DrScope Posted Jul 29th 2010 6:19PM]

And here I was thinking those were bobs :(

[JAG Posted Jul 30th 2010 4:17AM]

finally they are gettin better.

I hope someday they get 3rd or 2nd place again.