News Corp. Posts Loss

NEW YORK: News Corporation reported a loss of nearly $1.6 billion in its fiscal fourth quarter, which was affected by a $2.9 billion pre-tax charge related to the company’s publishing business.

News Corp. reported quarterly revenue of $8.4 billion, down from the year-ago figure of $9 billion. Total quarterly segment operating income was down $167 million to $1.2 billion. Q4 saw a net loss of $1.6 billion for News Corp. compared to a net income of $683 million the prior year’s quarter. This included a $2.9 billion pre-tax impairment and restructuring charge, primarily related to publishing, as well as $15 million of pre-tax loss in other segments, which includes a loss on the sale of property in the U.K. The charges were partially offset by a $115 million pre-tax gain from the participation in the BSkyB share repurchase program.

The company’s cable networks programming segment saw 15 percent growth in revenue, though this was more than offset by declines in the remaining segments. Total segment operating income for the cable network programming increased 26 percent.

Television reported quarterly segment operating income of $213 million, which was down $20 million from the year-ago period.

The quarterly results included a $57 million charge related to the costs of the ongoing investigations from the phone-hacking scandal at The News of the World.

Rupert Murdoch, chairman and CEO, said: “We are proud of the full year financial growth achieved over the last twelve months, led by our Cable Network Programming and Filmed Entertainment segments. Not only did we execute on our operating plan and deliver on our financial targets, we returned over $5 billion to shareholders through an aggressive buyback program and dividends. In addition, significant progress has been made in opportunistically addressing the company’s non-consolidated assets, as demonstrated by the purchase of Fox Pan American Sports, the sale of NDS and the announced intention to purchase the remaining ownership stake of ESPN STAR Sports and Consolidated Media Holdings.

“Our company has continued to innovate, grow and consistently adapt to the rapidly changing media industry landscape. We find ourselves in the middle of great change, driven by shifts in technology, consumer behavior, advertiser demands and economic uncertainty and change brings about great opportunity. News Corporation is in a strong operational, strategic and financial position, which should only be enhanced by the proposed separation of the media and entertainment and publishing businesses.”