Gregory Q. Brown
Analyst · Bernstein
Thanks, Ed. In Government, our sales for the quarter were $1.7 billion, up 10% over Q4 2011. We continued to see broad-based growth across the portfolio and in all regions. Profitability for the business also increased, with operating earnings of 21.8% of sales compared to 19.8% in Q4 of last year. For the full year, we saw strong growth across all of our major product lines in Government, including double-digit growth in ASTRO and TETRA, along with near double-digit growth in our professional and commercial radios. In addition, growth extended beyond our radio solutions with double-digit growth in our mission-critical command and control portfolio. Full year growth of 12% was balanced across both infrastructure and devices. Mission-critical system infrastructure sales increased significantly in ASTRO and TETRA, which, we believe, is an indicator of future subscriber demand. Since 2009, our focused R&D investments have led to the introduction of over 100 new products across both subscribers and infrastructure. And while mandates to improve spectrum efficiency encouraged some of our U.S. customers to upgrade, our new product introductions and expanded portfolio were a far more significant driver for us, demonstrated by our international growth. We had a strong finish to a very good year in North America, with full year sales growth of 14%. We also had double-digit growth in Latin America this year and solid growth in EMEA and Asia as well. In ASTRO, our market-leading P25 technology, we now have over 30 customers contracted for Phase 2 TDMA systems. This technology is twice as efficient as required by the current FCC narrowband mandate in the United States and enables double the channels and throughput. And during the quarter, several new customers signed up for this industry-leading solution, including Montgomery County, Pennsylvania for $39 million; Tacoma, Washington for $28 million; Clayton County, Georgia for $17 million; and Onslow County, North Carolina for $13 million. Customers like these who are investing in our next-generation systems have the assurance that new radios with enhanced features remain interoperable and backward-compatible with legacy P25 Phase 1 radios using our dynamic dual-mode feature. Our solutions allow customers to incrementally invest like Camden, New Jersey, a municipality that recently added a $12 million expansion to their countywide trunk system to add geographic coverage and new users from surrounding agencies. Our ASTRO technology extends beyond North America as we now have deployments in over 60 countries as well. Several new awards this quarter highlight this trend, including in Latin America: Colombia, Ministry of Defense for $12 million; Panama, Ministry of Public Safety for $6.5 million; and a large system for the Brazilian Army. And in Australia, we won numerous awards across all the mainland states that exceed $25 million in total. We had a record year in TETRA. We also celebrated a shipment milestone for TETRA with 2 million units shipped over the life of the portfolio, a portfolio which we've expanded significantly. Just 3 years ago, we only had 1 TETRA radio model. We now have a portfolio of over 8 radios, with the introduction this quarter of 2 new mobiles and the most advanced TETRA portable radio in the world. We're seeing the results of this TETRA investment with wins throughout Europe, including Germany, and also, in Asia. For example, the State of Brandenburg, Germany recently selected Motorola for a 4-year agreement to supply over 20,000 TETRA radios, along with software and services for police, fire and EMS. Other TETRA wins this quarter included a multimillion dollar project with a large nuclear power company in Russia, upgrades for the Shanghai Metro system for $7 million and awards for the Shanxi Police and Guangdong Police in China. Moving on to our Enterprise segment. Sales in Enterprise were $733 million, a decrease of 3% from Q4 of 2011, including the anticipated decline in iDEN and the addition of $72 million in Psion revenues. Operating earnings declined to 14.1% of sales from 18.2% last year. For the full year, the 5% decline in the Enterprise segment was impacted by the anticipated decline in iDEN of nearly $100 million, partially offset by the Q4 revenues from Psion. Our results were impacted by external factors such as a challenging macro environment leading to suppressed IT spend and unfavorable FX. In addition, there was some uncertainty around operating system roadmaps for enterprise mobile computing that we believe caused some customers to pause. Looking across the portfolio on a full year basis. Advanced data capture grew single digits, offset by a single-digit decline in enterprise mobile computing and a double-digit decline in WLAN. Despite the macro uncertainty, our engagement with customers remain strong, with examples of some customers who continue to invest in our mobile technologies which yield high return on investment. The largest bakery in the world, Grupo Bimbo, recently awarded us a global supply agreement for mobile computing solutions that includes the M65 [ph] for use in direct route delivery and bakery operations, beginning with a deployment in Mexico. And Target recently awarded us a contract to deploy next-generation mobile computers in their stores. This quarter, The Home Depot continued to invest in their first phone platform. These are associate productivity tools based on our mobile computing devices. Home Depot's investment will help to further reduce the time an associate spends on store tasks. Their goal has been to reduce task time from 60% to 40% and in return, enable store associates to spend more time with customers. The Motorola solution provides inventory information and the communications an associate needs to serve a customer. Ferguson, the largest wholesale distributor of residential and commercial plumbing supplies in the U.S., recently chose Psion's EP10 devices to fully optimize its logistic and delivery fleet. And Volkswagen recently chose Psion mobile computers for use in manufacturing at warehouse operations at their Puebla, Mexico plant. Italiane Poste (sic) [Poste Italiane] invested in our DC92 [ph] scanners, along with an additional 10,000 MC65 mobile computers to be deployed through their post offices in Italy. Australia Post recently ordered 9 million worth of mobile computing solutions, and Norwegian Post ordered 2 million of additional MC65 mobile computers as well. For the second year in a row, we were recognized as the Best Partner Supplier to Tesco. In addition, we received their Innovation Partner of the Year for our work on the SB1 and the personal shopping solution based on our MC17. This partnership with Tesco is an example of the deep domain expertise and investment that Enterprise customers expect from Motorola. We recently introduced the MC45, a value-tier WAN-enabled device that extends our knowledge worker portfolio, for reaching the field mobility segments in emerging markets. We also announced the P6000 (sic) [MP6000] multiplane scanner, which fits inside the checkout counters used by retailers. Our investment in camera-based technology have enabled us to enter this new segment with a superior product to serve many existing retail customers and address a $250 million market opportunity that is new to us. The National Retail Federation's annual big show was just last week. Show attendance and our booth traffic was up significantly from last year as attendees were interested in new technology for retailers to improve their customers' experience. One theme from the show was clear, that a more informed consumer is driving retailers to invest. Our annual consumer shopping study revealed that over 60% of retail managers believe that shoppers are better connected to information than their in-store employees. Retailers who embrace technology and enable their store associates to directly engage shoppers are creating differentiation through customer service and avoiding costly lost sales. Now switching gears and turning to a regional overview of the company. North America grew 9% for the quarter and year driven by strength across the Government portfolio, especially within ASTRO and professional and commercial radio. In Enterprise, depressed IT spend contributed to fewer large deals in enterprise mobile computing, while our data capture business turned in solid results. EMEA grew 4% for the quarter, including Psion, while full year growth came in at 2%. Government returned to growth for the year despite the challenging backdrop of austerity. Contracts like Norway and Germany and the expanded TETRA product portfolio contributed to a good year. Enterprise declined but held up well considering the unfavorable euro impact in 2012 and a mid-20% growth compare in the previous year for 2011. Asia grew 5% for the quarter and for the full year. Although these results were below our expectations, we remain confident in our long-term prospects for this region. Latin America grew 16%, excluding iDEN. Government grew solid double digits as we saw good performance in several of our larger countries. In services, we had a great year as well, with 9% growth driven by solid results in our largest region of North America and double-digit growth internationally. In our Government business, we recently signed managed service contracts with Austin, Texas for a $32 million multiphase upgrade that will ensure their P25 system stays current with evolving technology; and with Prince William County, Virginia for a $25 million computer-aided dispatch solution. Enterprise customers are also looking for end-to-end solutions, and we signed several agreements with nationwide retailers that attach managed services and comprehensive device management with our mobile computers. In October, many of our customers and employees on the East Coast were impacted by Hurricane Sandy's devastation. Motorola was on the ground to help, and we continue to assist with rebuilding efforts. Storms like Sandy illustrate the unique requirements public safety has for their mission-critical networks built around highly redundant architectures that include features like talk around, where our devices communicate directly with each other. It's estimated that almost 25% of the commercial cellular towers in the area were off-line due to the hurricane. However our LAN mobile radio systems were fully operational and available to assist first responders with their rescue and recovery efforts. Q4 results were a great finish to another outstanding year: solid revenue growth, expanded operating margins, over 26% earnings per share growth and continued return of capital to shareholders. We continue to execute on our strategy with a sharpened focus on Government and Enterprise and a promise to help people be their best in the moments that matter. I'd like to thank our 22,000 employees for another year of focus and performance, and I look forward to 2013. The demand drivers for our business remain solid, and we continue to invest and innovate for profitable growth.