Motorola loves to lose?

The Register: Motorola hints at chip biz sell-off - again

"Two years ago we were losing a lot of money in the government business, and we said there is no sense in selling it now or disposing of it now," he said,
at UBS Warburg's Global Telecom Conference, held in New York this week. "We fixed it. We got it generating significant positive cash flow and double-digit pre-tax profits. We sold the [government business division] last September."

Now they're saying they might sell their chip design business once it's profitable. I'm sorry but I don't understand this. Why would a company hold onto money-losing business units and sell profitable ones?

Is Motorola's goal to lose money until they don't exist?

Written on November 16, 2001