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Motorola: That's Gotta Hurt (7/12/01)
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Bummed about the unlikelihood of an LCD-based iMac at next week's Macworld Expo? Well, cheer up; at least Motorola's losing a ton of money. Oh, wait... that's not good news, either, is it? Man, tough week. Well, sad as the news may be, it's true: despite the company's frequent waves of layoffs and other cost-cutting measures like forced vacations, Motorola just reported its quarterly results, and there's so much red ink spattered all over, the place looks like a slaughterhouse.
Faithful viewer Steven C. Den Beste forwarded us an EBN article about the latest installment in Motorola's ongoing tale of woe: the company's semiconductor division (yes, the folks that make the G4, as well as a bunch of PowerPC variants for "embedded" use) lost $381 million last quarter. Motorola's CEO Chris Galvin blames the bleeding on a "decline in communications equipment orders" that's "worse than many in the industry first believed." Translation? Motorola's orders last quarter dropped a whopping 51% across all products, with sales of "wireless and network and computing" products down "significantly." Yeeks.
This can't bode well for future development of the PowerPC; R&D takes money, and Motorola's leaking the stuff at an alarming rate. Keep your fingers crossed that Motorola's continuing pain doesn't hold up the release of future G4s and G5s too much, because Apple can't afford to lose its momentum now. Look on the bright side, though; if the rumor about Apple having the option to buy Motorola's "entire PowerPC assets" for $500 million next year is true, then come January Steve might be talking to one seriously motivated seller. Apple gets total control over its own chips; Motorola get half a billion in cash and sheds a money-losing business; and everyone lives happily ever after. Now that's the kind of fairy tale ending we need to lift the mood around here...
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SceneLink (3174)
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 7/12/01 episode: July 12, 2001: There's still more evidence that the "G4 spy photos" are faked-- yet Apple keeps shutting down sites that post them. Meanwhile, word has it that next week's iMac doesn't boast an LCD display after all, and Motorola issues a quarterly report dripping with red ink...
Other scenes from that episode: 3172: Proof And Counter-Proof (7/12/01) Okay, this is the last day we're going to spend on those alleged G4 spy photos, we promise. We've already made it clear that, personally, we're skeptical, but we lean towards the "authentic" side of the fence, based mostly on little more than raw gut feeling... 3173: There's Never A Sure Thing (7/12/01) What with all the uncertainty over the look of next week's new Power Macs, it sure is nice to know that at least we're going to get LCD-based iMacs, right? Sigh... Well, we hate to burst your bubble, folks, but apparently it just wasn't meant to happen...
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