Google today reported earnings for its fiscal fourth quarter of 2013, including results that show its Motorola business continues to bleed money at an alarming rate. This time, the Google-owned hardware company lost $384 million.
As a result, this means Motorola saw losses of $1.245 billion in Google’s fiscal year of 2013. The sum for all four quarters are as follows: $271 million + $342 million + $248 million + $384 million.
In 2012, Motorola’s losses amounted to $1.113 billion. Yet Google only completed its acquisition in Q2 2012, so one could potentially argue that 2013 was slightly better for Motorola than 2012.
With the news that Google is selling Motorola to Lenovo, investors will be eagerly awaiting the deal’s closure. Unfortunately, neither of the two companies have offered guidance on when they expect the business to switch hands. In other words, Google will be taking a hit from at least one more quarter of Motorola losses.
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Motorola is in a situation that will be very difficult to recover from. Despite its attempts with the Moto X and Moto G, not to mention the Droid line, it can’t seem to sell enough devices to get out of the red.
Over the last few months, the company has offered deal after deal, discount after discount, in hope of spurring demand for its mobile devices. Quarter after quarter, however, there doesn’t seem to be any change, financially speaking at least.
Lenovo will have a tough time to do what Google couldn’t. The good news is that it has much more hardware experience, and with Motorola it becomes the third largest smartphone maker. Maybe then Motorola will see green again.
See also – Moto G hands-on: Motorola ignores low-end smartphone expectations with this stylish sub-$200 handset and Motorola officially launches its new line of Droid devices: $299 Droid Maxx, $199 Droid Ultra and $99 Droid Mini
Top Image Credit: Remy Gabalda / Getty Images
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