Motorola Mobility Loses $80 Million, Disappointing Tablet Sales

Motorola Mobility who was recently acquired by Google and still waiting for the deal to be approved, posted an $80 Million loss for the fourth quarter as well as disappointing sales of their tablets.

They saw just 200,000 of the Xyboard and Xoom sold. Competition with other Android tablets and the iPad is very fierce. While they did lose money in the fourth quarter, they did generate more revenue year-over-year at $3.4 Billion.

Google is hoping for the merger with the company to go through despite concerns. If the deal is not approved, it’ll cost the tech giant a whopping $2.5 Billion dubbed a “break-up fee”.

Via The Washington Post:

“If not for certain items unrelated to its ongoing business, Motorola Mobility said it would have earned 20 cents per share in its most recent quarter. That’s below the average estimate of 26 cents per share among analysts polled by FactSet. Before the company released its preliminary results earlier this month, analysts were expecting 42 cents per share.”

Although there was bad news, it didn’t really affect stock price.

“The results didn’t sway Motorola Mobility’s stock that much because Google’s $40-per-share offer is still on the table. Motorola Mobility’s shares edged up 7 cents to $38.74 in extended trading, after rising 7 cents during regular trading as well. Google shares added 90 cents to $569 after hours.”

The company has quite a year ahead. The Droid line of smartphones and the recently introduced Droid Razr, are doing well. It seems that in order to do well with tablets, they need to roll out new models and/or make them more appealing and attention worthy.

Do you think the Motorola Mobilty/Google acquisition will go through?