Even though it is necessary to reduce our expectations for sales and earnings in the short term, we continue to believe that tremendous long-term opportunity exists at three levels of the value chain ? embedded chips, embedded electronic systems, and end-to-end integrated communications solutions ? for wireless, broadband and Internet markets. |
In the fourth quarter of last year our forecast for 1998 called for higher sales growth and improved profitability, but that has not materialized. |
Motorola's growth in sales has continued to accelerate, and our earnings are on an improving trend. We are especially pleased by the results in our new Broadband Communications Sector, which was formed after the merger with General Instrument, the improvements in our network systems business, and the sequential growth in quarterly earnings for semiconductors. |
We are slightly raising our prior guidance on earnings per share for 2000 to $3.14, which would represent a 67 percent increase, versus 1999's EPS on ongoing operations of $1.88. |