Google’s Motorola business continues to bleed money at an alarming rate, losing $342 million in the second quarter of 2013. As can be expected, this has hurt its parent company, which today reported it missed expectations at revenues of $14.11 billion and EPS of $9.54.
The same quarter a year ago, Motorola’s operating loss was $199 million. In other words, the Q2 2013 results are more than $100 million lower than those in Q2 2012.
The question on everyone’s mind is of course: can the Moto X save the day? Given that revenues were up, $998 million this past quarter compared to $843 million in the same quarter last year, it’s certainly a possibility. It’s just not a very big one.
First of all, the latest rumors suggest the Moto X will launch in August. If true, that would give Motorola about one quarter of sales left for this year.
Even if the Moto X outsells every other phone currently available, Motorola is still spending money on pushing its other phones, all of which aren’t doing very well in today’s cut-throat market. As a result, if the Moto X is the comeback phone for Motorola, we certainly won’t see a turnaround on the financial side in 2013.
In fact, rumor has it that Google is planning to spend $500 million to market the Moto X. That alone will keep Motorola in the negative for quite some time.
While we of course don’t know how much the Moto X will end up costing the company, we do know that Motorola is betting big on it. That being said, this is very likely a long-term play, and Google has shown many times before that it has absolutely no problem losing piles of cash in its various ventures. In short, we’re not holding our breath for a Moto money-maker.
See also – Motorola’s Moto X smartphone reportedly set to include customizable colors and engraving and Motorola launches sign up page to alert consumers when new Moto X smartphone details are available
Top Image Credit: Remy Gabalda / Getty Images
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