As it prepares to be swallowed whole by Google, Motorola Mobility has come out with its Q4 and full-year 2011 numbers this afternoon. The most important figure — earnings — is in red ink territory this quarter with a loss of $80 million on revenue of $3.4 billion; in the fourth quarter of 2010, it had posted a $110 million profit.

The company's phone shipments are down, year over year: it sent out 10.5 million mobile devices overall in the quarter versus 11.3 million a year prior. In total, Moto shipped 42.4 million devices in 2011 — 18.7 million of which were smartphones. Another million were tablets, but Q4 was responsible for a dismal 200,000, so it would seem there was little or no boost in the bottom line from the launch of the Xoom 2 or the Xyboard series.

As for that Google merger, Moto doesn't give any new guidance in the earnings report but says that it "continues to work closely with Google to complete the proposed acquisition of Motorola Mobility as expeditiously as possible" and still hopes to get it tied up in early 2012 pending regulatory approvals. Says CEO Sanjay Jha, "we remain energized by the proposed merger with Google and continue to focus on creating innovative technologies" — not so much a defense of the red ink or the downward trend in shipments as an admission that he's looking forward to being taken under Mountain View's wide, heavy umbrella.