News Corp. Earnings Match Forecast; Revenue Misses
News Corp.reported quarterly earnings that matched Wall Street's expectations, but its revenue felt shy of what analysts had been expecting on Wednesday.
After the earnings announcement, the company's shares fell in after-hours trading. (Click here to get the latest quotes for News Corp)
The company posted a net loss of $1.55 billion, or 64 cents per share, in the fiscal fourth quarter, compared with net income of $683 million, or 26 cents per share, a year ago.
The company took $2.9 billion of restructuring and impairment charges primarily related to its publishing businesses which overshadowed growth at its cable networks. These charges were partially offset by a $115 million pre-tax gain from the company’s participation in the BSkyB share repurchase program.
Excluding items, earnings were 32 cents per share, compared with 36 cents a share in the year-earlier period.
The company said strong growth at its cable networks helped offset weaker performances at its other divisions.
There was no sign of European weakness in the numbers, either. Improving markets and viewership trends in Latin America drove up international ad revenue 13 percent, while domestic cable channels ad revenue grew 9 percent.
Revenue dropped 6 percent to $8.4 billion from $8.96 billion a year ago.
Analysts had expected the company to report earnings excluding items of 32 cents a share on $8.72 billion in revenue, according to a consensus estimate from Thomson Reuters.
In late June, the company announced plans to split its entertainment and publishing businesses in two. The decision came roughly one year after the company's now-defunct subsidiary News of the World became embroiled in a phone-hacking scandal.
News Corp. owns Fox Broadcasting in the U.S., the FX and Fox News cable networks, and such newspapers as The Wall Street Journal and The Sun in the U.K. It is also parent of the Twentieth Century Fox studios.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story said News Corp. posted net income of $1.55 billion. In fact, it was a net loss of $1.55 billion.
