Earnings dip at Motorola

MOTOROLA has reported reduced sales and earnings for the third quarter and warned that cost culling over the rest of the year…

MOTOROLA has reported reduced sales and earnings for the third quarter and warned that cost culling over the rest of the year will hit profits in the final quarter. But a spokesman for the company here said there were "no indications" of job losses in its Cork and Dublin plants.

Third quarter sales for the US multinational declined by 5 per cent from the same period last year to $6.5 billion (£4 billion), while earnings at $206 million (£129 million) were less than half 1995 levels.

The company is "expanding cost culling actions", according to Mr Christopher Galvin, president of the multinational.

Motorola employs around 1,400 people in Ireland, in two plants. In Swords, Co Dublin, it manufactures two way radios, paging and energy products. In Cork, the company develops software for cellular phone systems. A spokesman said the company's Irish operations were"going from strength to strength. There is no indication that there is going to be any job losses".

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An extension to the paging division in Swords is going ahead.

Colm Keena

Colm Keena

Colm Keena is an Irish Times journalist. He was previously legal-affairs correspondent and public-affairs correspondent