Troubled US mobile phone maker Motorola has reported a huge fourth-quarter loss. It also said it was suspending its dividend and looking for a new chief financial officer.
The company reported a net loss of $3.57 billion in the final three months of 2008, and a net loss of $4.16 billion for the full year.
Motorola also released a grim outlook for the current quarter, forecasting another loss.
The company suspended its quarterly cash dividend and said it was looking for a replacement for chief financial officer Paul Liska.
Motorola said sales of mobile devices plunged 51% in the fourth quarter compared with the same quarter a year ago to $2.35 billion. The mobile devices unit reported an operating loss of $595m.
Motorola said it shipped 19.2 million handsets in the quarter and that its share of the global handset market was an estimated 6.5%. For the full year, mobile sales were 12.1 billion dollars, 36% lower than in 2007, with an operating loss of $2.2 billion.
Motorola said it planned to carry out cost reductions of some $1.5 billion in 2009.
