LIBERTYVILLE, Ill.-Motorola Inc. said Brightstar Corp. will serve as its master services distribution partner in the United States for mobile phones. Brightstar, which is Motorola’s authorized distributor in Latin America, has been working with the company in the United States for about four years.
Under the agreement, Brightstar will act as Motorola’s U.S. distributor and will be responsible for extending Motorola’s brand penetration through procurement and fulfillment of Motorola handsets to network operators, agents and dealers, distributors and retail stores.
“The close strategic relationship that we’ve shared with Motorola is a key reason for Brightstar’s tremendous growth in the U.S.,” said Denise Gibson, Brightstar’s chief operating officer. “We look forward to continuing this successful alliance and further supporting our mutual customers in the future.”
Brightstar scored $1.2 billion in revenues last year, and distributes products from a variety of major manufacturers.
In other phone distribution news, CellStar Corp. reported improved end-of-year results. The company’s fourth quarter revenues were $498.1 million, up from the $430.4 million it reported in the same quarter a year ago. CellStar’s consolidated net income was $3.7 million, up from the net loss of $41.6 million it reported in the same quarter a year ago.
“We are delighted to report positive results for the quarter. We were particularly pleased to see the China markets recover from SARS. Shipments during the fourth quarter were the strongest that we have seen in the region for several quarters,” said Terry Parker, the company’s chief executive officer. “Even though profits improved in Asia from the third quarter, we were still impacted by some lingering effects of SARS. Although our overall inventory levels were down, we still have excess inventory on certain product lines, and as a result took a $4.3 million inventory reserve in the fourth quarter.”
CellStar said it handled 4.3 million handsets in the fourth quarter worldwide.
