Motorola warned last night it will post a first-quarter loss and cut its revenue forecast to far below Wall Street expectations due to weak cell phone sales.
The company cut its first-quarter revenue forecast to a range of $9.2 billion to $9.3 billion, from its January estimate of $10.4 billion to $10.6 billion.
Motorola forecast a per-share loss of 7 cents to 9 cents in the quarter, including 9 cents in special charges.
The mobile phone maker, which has disappointed investors for the past two quarters, also said it would accelerate its share buyback programme.
Motorola also said chief financial officer David Devonshire would retire on April 1st, and appointed a new chief operating officer, Greg Brown.
In January the company indicated that it was entering into an "employee consultation process", which could potentially result in the loss of 350 jobs at its facility in Mahon, Cork city.