By: The News Corporation reported a 13 percent decline in earnings Wednesday from a year ago, when results were lifted by gains from investment sales.
The company ? close to completing a $5 billion deal to acquire Dow Jones & Company, publisher of The Wall Street Journal ? earned $732 million in the three months that ended in September, down from $843 million a year ago.
The News Corporation owns the Fox Broadcasting network, Fox News Channel, MySpace, the 20th Century Fox movie studio and newspapers throughout Australia and England, as well as The New York Post.
Earnings came in at 23 cents a share, a penny ahead of analysts? expectations as reported by Thomson Financial and below the 27 cents a share in the year-ago period. Revenue rose 19 percent, to $7.07 billion.
Rupert Murdoch, the company?s chairman and chief executive, said in a conference call that the Dow Jones acquisition would most likely close soon after a shareholder vote is held on Dec. 13. The deal is sure to be approved because enough members of the company?s controlling shareholders, the Bancroft family, have agreed to vote for it.
Murdoch said that he saw several opportunities for building up The Journal?s overseas presence, but that the top priority was to get the paper ?as we like it,? adding that ?we can improve it, absolutely.? He declined to elaborate, however, on what specific changes he had in mind.
Murdoch also defended the selection of Natalie Bancroft as a nominee to the News Corporation board. Several Bancroft family members had been reluctant to sell to Mr. Murdoch, and as part of the final deal, the News Corporation agreed to let the family nominate a director to its board.
After much back and forth, the two sides agreed on Natalie Bancroft, 27, who lives in Europe and by her admission has relatively little business or journalism experience, The Wall Street Journal reported earlier Wednesday.
?We believe she?ll be a very fine director,? Murdoch said. ?They?re a funny family, and they couldn?t decide between themselves who to nominate.?
The News Corporation?s operating income, which excludes the effects of the sales of the company?s stake in the satellite broadcaster Sky Brasil a year ago and other investments, rose 23 percent, to $1.05 billion.
The News Corporation credited the gains to strong box-office results from ?The Simpsons Movie? and ?Live Free or Die Hard,? as well as higher earnings from cable TV networks and a return to profitability at Sky Italia, a satellite broadcaster.
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