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Poor Texas Instruments (TXN) news bad for Nokia (NOK), others

Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN) revised its quarterly outlook down during an update of its business yesterday. It pointed to its 3G chip business as a reason for the disappointment and indicated that one of its larger customers had cut demand. TI's largest 3G chip customer is Nokia (NYSE: NOK).

Shares in Nokia fell 3.2% in early trading on the news.

While the news may be bad for Nokia, it is worse for Motorola (NYSE: MOT), which was not generally mentioned as part of the TI news. Nokia has a strong balance sheet, is highly profitable, and has 40% of the handset market worldwide. In other words, it can weather a slowdown.

Motorola's share of the global cellphone business is now about 12%, down from 22% two years ago. Its stock trades near a 52-week low, at $8.54. Its cell operation has been for sale for over a month, and there appear to be no likely buyers, perhaps because of its huge losses.

If Nokia is getting a cold, Motorola is getting pneumonia.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

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Last updated: July 20, 2008: 04:58 AM

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