A 592 per cent rise in profits from its semiconductor operation helped drive Motorola's second quarter earnings 91 per cent to $515 million - 23 cents a share - the chips-to-communications company said yesterday.

Motorola's profits were right in line with Wall Street expectations, according to First Call polls. Last year, the company recorded profits of $269 million before expenses. However, one-off charges, mostly relating to acquistion-derived R&D, knocked the company's Q2 2000 earnings down to $204 million, or nine cents a share. That figure is actually down, year-on-year - for Q2 1999, Motorola posted after-expenses earnings of $255 million, 12 cents a share.

Revenues for the quarter reached $9.3 billion, up 22 per cent from last year's $7.6 billion. The company's Semiconductor Products Sector contributed $2 billion to the Q2 2000 figure, which amounts to a rise of 27 per cent. Profits for the group rose from $24 million to $166 million.

Cellphone sales grew 20 per cent to $3.3 billion, and growing margins pushed profits up 5.65 per cent. Motorola's network systems business added a further $2 billion to the quarter's revenue, an increase of 37 per cent, while broadband communications products generated revenues of $768 million, up 23 per cent. ®