Motorola posts profit even as revenue falls

30/07/2009 - 12:14

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Motorola Inc posted a quarterly profit versus a year-earlier loss as it cut costs and shipped more cell phones than expected, although revenue fell short of Wall Street estimates.

Motorola posted a profit of $26 million, or 1 cents per share compared with a loss of $231 million or 10 cents a share in the same quarter a year earlier.

But revenue fell 32 percent to $5.5 billion, compared with analysts' average expectation for revenue of $5.62 billion, according to Reuters Estimates.

The company, which trails behind cell phone rivals such as Nokia and Samsung Electronics <005930.KS>, shipped 14.8 million phones in the quarter compared with 28 million phones a year earlier.

The average Wall Street expectation was for 14.1 million phones, according to five analysts contacted by Reuters.

(Reporting by Sinead Carew; Editing by Derek Caney)