After the Dow Jones industrial average closed above 9,000 points for the first time in history last night, Motorola Inc kicked off the technology stocks’ reporting season by hitting First Call’s estimate of $0.23 smack on the nose. No great achievement as the company had previously warned its first quarter net income would be way down on last year and in the event it was certainly nothing to write home about, demonstrating why it’s looking at merging its various divisions into two huge operations, one focused on consumer customers, the other on industrials. The company reported first quarter net income down 44% at $180m compared with $325m last time, on revenue up 4% at $6.9bn compared with $6.6bn. Earnings per share were $0.30 including a gain of $54m for the sale of assets and favorable settlements of patent claims. Motorola blamed weak demand in Asia for semiconductor products and weak paging and cellular results. Motorola’s experienced technical problems with new equipment in its wireless business.
