Motorola Mobility Q4 2011 results: Loses $80M, ships 10.5M phones

Motorola Mobility Holdings, Inc. —while awaiting Google consumption— announced its Q4 2011 financial figures today, and the results are paltry.

The Illinois-headquartered communications corporation reported an $80 million loss on revenue of $3.4 billion. In Q4 2010, Motorola Mobility published a $100 million profit.

The red ink terrain expands to the company’s trend of dwindling phone shipments, as it sent out a mere 10.5 million devices in Q4 2011 versus 11.3 million from the same quarter a year earlier. The company shipped 42.4 million devices total in 2011 that includes 18.7 million smartphones and an additional million in tablets. However, Q4 2011 is only accountable for 200,000 units, despite the Xoom 2 launch and Xyboard series.

More information is available below.

Google is set to acquire Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion, and in a post on Google’s blog, Google Chief Executive Officer and Cofounder Larry Page revealed that the merger is a strategic move to strengthen Google’s patent portfolio.

The Mountain View, Calif.-based company’s Android operating system is often under fire in an industry-wide patent battle, in which Android manufacturers HTC, Motorola, and Samsung are sued left-and-right for alleged patent infringement by competitors. The Motorola Mobility acquisition is a viable means of protecting Android.

Motorola Mobility’s CEO Sanjay Jha said his company “continues to work closely with Google to complete the proposed acquisition of Motorola Mobility as expeditiously as possible” and he aspires to tie any loose ends in early 2012 pending regulatory approvals.

“We remain energized by the proposed merger with Google and continue to focus on creating innovative technologies,” Jha contended in today’s release, which is an optimistic front given the downward spiral of Motorola Mobility’s earnings and shipments year-over-year.

Google has said it plans to run Motorola Mobility as an independent company.