UPDATE: Motorola Solutions Posts 4Q Profit; Revenue Up 13%

Motorola Solutions Inc. (MSI) posted a fourth-quarter profit on continued strong spending from governments and large businesses.

The provider of public safety radios, handheld scanners and telecommunications network gear was born earlier this month in the split of Motorola Inc., which separated the higher profile mobile devices and TV set-top box operations. As a result, it reported its share of the former combined company's results from the fourth quarter.

Motorola Solutions reported a profit of $194 million, or 57 cents a share. It didn't provide year-earlier net income figures in a press release.

Revenue jumped 13% to $2.25 billion.

Analysts, on average, project earnings of 44 cents a share and revenue of $1.83 billion, according to Thomson Reuters.

"We have strong momentum going into 2011 as our total backlog was up slightly," Chief Executive Greg Brown told Dow Jones Newswires. He noted that much of the strength came from North America.

He added the business could continue to show 4% to 5% revenue growth, while operating earnings could grow four to five times faster than revenue growth by trimming expenses.

The company plans to cut $150 million to $250 million in costs this year.

Motorola is still in the middle of its transformation. The last piece--the sale of its network-equipment business to Alcatel-Lucent (ALU)--was supposed to close at the end of last year but was delayed. The deal still requires approval from the Chinese government, but is caught up by a lawsuit from Huawei Technologies Co., which claims that Motorola is selling assets that include its own intellectual property.

Brown said he expects the deal to close later this quarter, dismissing the impact of the lawsuit.

"The Huawei lawsuit was not a surprise," he said. "It is completely without merit."

Motorola shares fell 1.5% to $38.64.

-By Roger Cheng, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2153; roger.cheng@dowjones.com

(Matt Jarzemsky contributed to this report.)

Motorola Solutions (NYSE:MSI)
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