Shutdown didn’t affect Motorola earnings

I have to admit that the very large and bold headline in The Oct. 24 Business section certainly grabbed my attention. However, after reading the article, I believe the headline, “Motorola Solutions hit by government shutdown,” was misleading and inaccurate. I think whoever wrote the headline owes your readers an apology. First of all and most important, the government shutdown began on Oct. 1, which is the beginning of the fourth quarter and would have absolutely no effect on revenue, sales, shipments or whatever you want to call it in the third quarter. The third quarter was over before the government shutdown began!

I don’t know if the writer had a personal or political motivation to try to blame things on the government shutdown, but one would hope the writer understood the basics of when a quarter ends and when another quarter begins. Perhaps a more appropriate headline would have been “Motorola Solutions earnings soar 50 percent while revenue drops 2 percent.”

Daryl G. Pratt

Arlington Heights