News Corp profit doubles despite MySpace troubles
03 Feb 2011
Rupert Murdoch's News Corp received strong support from TV affiliate revenue and advertising market in the US that helped it double its earnings to $642 million in net income in its fiscal second quarter, despite troubling performance by the social networking site MySpace that it had acquired with much fanfare for $580 million in July 2005.
News Corp's net profit is higher from year-ago results of $254 million (overall revenue increased slightly to $8.76 billion).
Leaving out charges related to restructuring to a reorganisation of MySpace, the company's adjusted per-share earnings stood at 29 cents.
TV affiliates owned and operated, saw a 50-per cent surge in profits on a rebound in the local ad market especially in the automotive and financial categories. Also operating income for the company's cable networks, including FX, Fox News Channel and the regional Fox Sports channels, rose a smart 22 per cent.
Earnings for the broadcast television group on the whole, improved over five-fold.
The social networking site MySpace that held out much promise once, has become an albatross for the company.
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