Motorola's Irish unit reports pretax profits of €3.19m

MOTOROLA IRELAND Limited reported pretax profits of €3.19 million for the year ended December 2008, despite the company significantly reducing its presence in Ireland in 2007, according to accounts returned to the Companies Office.

In March 2007, the Irish subsidiary of the mobile phone maker announced the closure of its software development centre in Mahon, Co Cork, with the loss of 330 jobs.

Accumulated profits at the company stood at €42.15 million at December 31st, 2008.

A note to the accounts showed that an interim divided of €40 million was paid on May 20th, 2009, after the balance sheet date.

The accounts also confirm that redundancy payments of €20.87 million, after rebates, were paid to employees in 2007.

According to financial statements for 2008, 12 employees, including company directors, were retained by Motorola Ireland in 2008, working across the areas of administration, sales and marketing and technical development.

The principal activities of Motorola Ireland, according to the annual returns, are “the research and development of software for use in network management systems for cellular communications” and “the marketing of technologies of the parent company, Motorola Inc”. The company’s registered address is at Sir John Rogerson Quay, Dublin 2.

When contacted by The Irish Timesa spokeswoman for the firm said there was no one available to comment on the accounts.

Turnover at Motorola Ireland was just over €3.2 million for the year, with 74 per cent of turnover generated in the United Kingdom, and 26 per cent in the US.

Last month the firm’s US parent posted a small quarterly net profit for the second quarter, after three previous consecutive quarters of losses. Revenue was down 32 per cent from the previous year to just under $5.5 billion. The mobile phone giant has been losing ground to Nokia and Apple in recent years.