Gregory Brown
Analyst · CLSA
Thanks, Ed. In Government, our sales for the quarter were $1.2 billion, up 5% over Q1 of 2010. We saw healthy growth in all regions except for EMEA, where continued challenges in Western Europe offset demand in other parts of the region. Our profitability also improved with operating earnings representing 11.7% of sales this quarter compared to 8.7% in Q1 of last year. This increase in operating earnings was driven by higher gross margins due to favorable product mix and a continued focus on operating expense management to drive further operating leverage. Although the general funding environment remains challenging in the U.S., there's some signs of improvement as tax receipts continue to increase and approach 2008 levels. In addition, our customers continue to prioritize their public safety communication needs, and we remain focused on helping them find ways to fund system upgrades, improve interoperability and meet spectrum narrowbanding requirements. Examples of key wins that demonstrate our solutions to meet these needs include: a $14 million award in Cortland County, New York to enable numerous public safety agencies to communicate and improve coverage; a $16 million regional system with East Bay Regional Communications to serve the San Francisco Bay Area; a $10 million award in Brown County, Wisconsin to implement an ASTRO 25 system that will improve interoperability and enable more efficient use of spectrum; and finally, in Pennsylvania, we won a $31 million award to upgrade Berks County from a conventional system to the benefits of ASTRO 25 trunking. We announced plans to begin shipping our ASTRO 25 systems with P25 Phase 2 TDMA trunking later this year. This is part of our standards-compliant, next-generation public safety portfolio that is transforming public safety operations and strengthening the mission-critical communications core. Nearly a dozen customers have already contracted with us to deliver P25 TDMA functionality. In TETRA, we secured multi-million dollar projects with Airwave in the United Kingdom and with a Chevron affiliate in Kazakhstan to service one of the largest oilfields in the world. In Latin America, we won new multi-million dollar projects for ASTRO 25 radio systems with public safety agencies in Colombia and the civil police in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Our innovation continues to earn recognition from our customers and industry as well. This year, we earned prestigious red dot awards for the designs of our industry-leading APX Portable radios and our Mission Critical Wireless Earpiece. And American COP Magazine recently featured our solutions for in-car digital video, mobile workstations and the APX integrated radio control head. With respect to our next-generation public safety initiatives, during the quarter, we announced with Verizon Wireless a first-of-its-kind solution that combines a standards-based public safety broadband network tailored for mission-critical operations with the benefits of a leading public commercial broadband LTE network. As a result of this alliance, public safety agencies will benefit from economies of scale, site sharing, optimized network design and an open standards-based approach. The alliance allows agencies to supplement their mission-critical core platforms with the rich media services and the increased capacity and coverage of Verizon Wireless' public LTE network. With bills now in the House and Senate in support of our first responder customers position, there is optimism about prioritization of the 700 MHz D block to public safety, which would efficiently and effectively double the spectrum available for a public safety-grade broadband data network. We've been investing in R&D for next-generation public safety for over 2 years, and our expertise in both public and private networks makes us uniquely qualified to deliver standards-based LTE solutions to our public safety customers. Moving to the Enterprise business. Sales in our Enterprise segment were $695 million, an increase of 14% from Q1 of 2010. Operating earnings expanded to 18.4% of sales, up from 12.7% last year with robust EMEA demand and improved contribution from iDEN. Excluding iDEN, Enterprise operating margins still increased and were consistent with our Government segment. Retail, the largest vertical segment we serve in Enterprise, continues to invest in technology to empower workers and generate sales growth. In January, we released the latest results of our annual retail study, which indicated 55% of retailers cited shoppers as better connected to information than their own store associates. When shoppers received guidance from a retail associate equipped with a handheld mobile computer, over 43% reported that the device improved the overall shopping experience. The return on investment on our retail solutions is further supported by research that suggests nearly 1/3 of retail store visits ended with an average of $132 unspent because of out-of-stock items, limited store associate assistance and long checkout lines. An example of how retailers are investing in technology to respond to these trends is a $24 million award that we recently received from a large U.S. big box retailer to deploy in-store wireless infrastructure, mobile applications and security. Another area of growth in Enterprise is among our transportation and logistics customers. We announced the $20 million mobile computing solution with General Logistics Systems in Germany and another award with Correos in Spain, both to further enable world-class logistics and package delivery. Additionally, we will continue to grow our Enterprise services portfolio with mobile security and network management solutions. During the quarter, we expanded our scale of these offerings with additional large retailers and financial institutions. The RFID Journal recently recognized Motorola Solutions as the best-known brand in the RFID industry. Our RFID solutions enable businesses to advance to new levels of efficiency with realtime asset management and ensuring that the right product is on the shelf and available for the customer at the right time. Furthering our leadership in RFID, we recently introduced a contactless mobile computer based on our premier MC75 Enterprise mobile computing platform, which now features high-frequency RFID and near-field communications. Now turning to a total regional view for the company. Our sales grew in all 4 geographic regions over the same quarter a year ago. North America grew in mid-single digits, while EMEA grew in high single digits fueled by continued strength in Enterprise mobile computing. Asia continues to grow with favorable economic trends and expanding infrastructure for transportation, public safety, utilities and health care. Latin America's performance is in part attributable to growth in iDEN, investments in infrastructure, adoption of Enterprise mobile computing and demand for radio communications systems. From a go-to-market perspective, we hosted a channel partner kickoff event in every region, with 5,000 attendees representing our top worldwide partners for sales and product training. Our Motorola Solutions' PartnerEmpower channel, which spans both Government and Enterprise, was also awarded a 5-star rating in CRN magazine's 2011 Partner Program Guide, which recognizes outstanding partnership opportunities and support. We saw examples this past quarter where our equipment and employees delivered in moments that mattered. Following the 6.3 magnitude earthquake in Christchurch, the second largest city in New Zealand, we contributed to rescue and recovery by sending wireless broadband gear, 250 TETRA mission-critical radios and other types of support. Our technicians on the scene worked with emergency services personnel to ensure systems were configured for full communications capability and integrated seamlessly with local emergency networks. In response to the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami in Japan, we donated over 1,300 radios and other equipment to assist with rescue and recovery. Our employees in Japan are safe and have returned to work, and we will continue to support our partners in Japan during this rebuilding effort. I'm proud of the responses from our employees worldwide, including their personal donations in our Motorola Solutions Foundation contributions, exceeding $0.5 million of disaster relief for both Japan and New Zealand. We continue to refine our overall portfolio to strengthen our focus on mission-critical communications solutions for public safety and enterprise. With this focus in Q1, we divested of our modules business, and we also sold a production facility in Israel. Several weeks ago, we announced an amended agreement with Nokia Siemens for the sale of our Networks business for $975 million in cash plus $150 million in retained accounts receivables. We expect net cash proceeds of $1 billion after taxes, accounts receivable collections, assignment fees and other transaction fees and expenses. A significant amount of the net proceeds will be received in the U.S. In addition, our discontinued operations from the Networks business generated approximately $217 million in operating cash flow during Q1. We received regulatory approval in China on April 20. And with all other remaining closing conditions satisfied, we are scheduled to close this transaction with NSN tomorrow. This will represent another significant accomplishment toward optimizing our capital structure, and we will provide greater clarity on our capital allocation decisions within the next 90 days. Overall, our Q1 results were an outstanding start to the year, and we're well positioned for continued success with a strong balance sheet, a commitment to innovation and exceptional customers and employees. Shep?