Ina Fried

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Motorola Mobility Says Holiday Quarter Wasn’t So Jolly

Motorola Mobility on Friday warned that fourth-quarter sales won’t be what many were expecting.

The cellphone maker said it estimates its sales totaled $3.4 billion, and that it will post “modest profitability,” excluding various items. Motorola said it shipped about 10.5 million mobile devices in the quarter, just over half of which were smartphones.

While Motorola itself hadn’t given a forecast for the quarter, analysts were expecting sales to be a lot closer to $3.9 billion.

The company is in the process of trying to sell itself to Google. Motorola shareholders have approved the details, but it is still in the process of getting regulatory approval for the transaction.

“The company continues to work closely with Google to complete the proposed acquisition of Motorola Mobility as expeditiously as possible,” Motorola said in a statement.

Motorola said it still expects the deal to close “in early 2012,” but added the caveat that “it is possible that the failure to timely meet such conditions or other factors outside of the company’s control could delay or prevent completion of the transaction altogether.”

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