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[orwell1984]

News Corp posts record profit

News Corporation has ended the financial year with a strong showing, posting a final quarter profit of $560 million.

The shift to profit was largely underwritten by increased ratings and higher advertising revenues at News Corp`s Fox television network.

The profit was a remarkable turnaround from the record loss it posted this time last year of several billion dollars as a result of writedowns.

Revenue rose 20 per cent.

Income from the company`s television unit, which includes the Fox Television network and 35 television stations, rose 63 per cent.

Its film unit posted a 13 per cent increase in income helped by DVD sales of Ice Age and syndication revenue for shows like The Simpsons.

News Corporation chairman and chief executive Rupert Murdoch says the profit is a company record.

"It`s a record end to a record year, the most profitable fourth quarter ever, the most profitable year in our company`s 30 years in existence," he said.

Quelle: www.abc.net.au

[Seefunk]

Reuters
Murdochs Medienkonzern News Corp wieder mit Quartalsgewinn
Mittwoch 13. August 2003, 16:28 Uhr

Aktienkurse
AOL Time Warner Inc
AOL
15.48
+0.11


The News Corporation...




New York, 13. Aug (Reuters) - Der australische Medienkonzern News Corp von Rupert Murdoch hat unter anderem wegen höherer Werbeeinnahmen bei seinem Fernsehsender Fox News im abgelaufenen Quartal wieder die Gewinnzone erreicht.
Nach der am Mittwoch vorgelegten Bilanz des vierten Geschäftsquartals erzielte das Unternehmen einen Gewinn von 370 Millionen Dollar oder 28 Cent je Aktie nach einem Verlust von 1,74 Milliarden Dollar im Vorjahreszeitraum. Der Umsatz stieg um 20 Prozent auf 4,59 Milliarden ANZEIGE




Dollar. Zur Verbesserung des Ergebnisses trug wesentlich der Nachrichtensender Fox News bei, der seinen Gewinn beinahe verdoppelte. Höhere Werbeumsätze hätten hier die gestiegenen Kosten durch die Berichterstattung über den Irak-Krieg mehr als wettgemacht.

"Alle Geschäftsbereiche von News Corp haben sich stark entwickelt", sagte Analyst Paul Kim von Kim & Co. Enttäuschende Zahlen wie etwa der Kundenrückgang bei der Online-Sparte von AOL (NYSE: AOL - Nachrichten) Time Warner habe es nicht gegeben. "Bei News Corp sieht jede Zahl gut aus", sagte Kim.

Ohne Sonderposten erzielte News Corp einen Gewinn je Aktie von 24 Cent nach einem Gewinn je Anteilsschein von 8 Cent im Vorjahreszeitraum. Analysten hatten auf dieser Basis im Durchschnitt einen Gewinn je Aktie von 16 Cent erwartet.

Die auch in den USA gelisteten Aktien von News Corp notierten im frühen und kaum veränderten New Yorker Handel knapp 0,9 Prozent im Plus bei 32,84 Dollar.

kae/phi

[Seefunk]

News Corp swings back to profit

NEW YORK: News Corp, the media conglomerate controlled by Rupert Murdoch, has swung back to a quarterly profit as stronger ratings helped boost advertising revenue at its Fox network and Fox News Channel.

Aided by programmes like American Idol and Joe Millionaire, the Fox network reversed its lacklustre performance from the previous year. Meanwhile, the Fox News Channel’s profit nearly doubled with higher ad revenue overcoming increased costs of coverage of the war in Iraq.

For its fiscal quarter to June 30, News Corp reported a profit of US$370mil, or 28 cents per ordinary and preferred American depositary share, compared with a year-ago loss of US$1.74bil, or US$1.40 a share.

The year-ago loss was due in large part to the write-down of the company`s 43% investment in Gemstar-TV Guide International Inc.

Revenue rose 20% to US$4.59bil in the latest quarter from US$3.83bil previously.

”The Fox network and the cable networks clearly outperformed everyone’s expectations,” said Jeffrey Logsdon, an analyst with Harris Nesbitt Gerard. “Advertising has improved, as has the company’s cost structure.”

He noted the only uncertainty was the timing of News Corp’s takeover of DirecTV, the largest US satellite TV service, from General Motors Co’s Hughes Electronics Corp unit.

“We remain hopeful the transaction will receive the necessary approvals by the end of the calendar year,” Murdoch said on a conference call.

Paul Kim, an analyst with investment research company Kim & Co, noted that each of News Corp’s divisions performed well. “You didn’t see any of the disappointments that marred the earnings of some of the other media companies,” he said.

News Corp chief financial officer David DeVoe said the company expected high single-digit to low double-digit growth in operating income for fiscal 2004, including the absorption of a US$300mil loss for its Sky Italia business. – Reuters


For more foreign business news

[orwell1984]

Boomtime blowouts old News as Murdoch moves on
August 18, 2003

Some short-term pain is a small price to pay for long-term gain on the News Corp roller-coaster, writes Malcolm Maiden.

Investors don`t buy into News Corp to get a quiet life.

In a dividend-obsessed market, News Corp is still unapologetically growth focused, ploughing profits back into its vast array of businesses and paying dividends that amount to a yield of one quarter of one per cent.

But the annual profit result that Rupert Murdoch unveiled last week represented a return to normality for the group - one not entirely reflected in News`s Australian share price, despite a 6.7 per cent run-up from $11.57 a share to $12.35 since the end of last month.

As usual, last week`s profit statement included splashes of red ink, notably on News`s new pay TV monopoly in Italy, Sky Italia, which is the result of the merger of News`s Stream pay TV unit and a larger rival, Telepiu.

Losses in Italy totalled $US90 million ($137 million) in the final quarter of the year and will run to about $US300 million this financial year as the business consolidates.

But that`s the sort of thing News Corp investors should take in their stride. By buying into the company they are backing the Murdoch growth strategy, which includes, among other things, the patient creation of a pay TV empire that embraces leading or dominant market shares in Italy, Australia, the UK (where News`s 35 per cent owned affiliate, BSkyB, is growing profit quickly again after shifting its customer base across to an interactive digital format), Asia, and the US, where News is finally entering the market by buying 34 per cent of the Hughes Electronics and its DirecTV pay TV franchise for $US6.6 billion in cash and shares.

The US deal will also give News a stranglehold in the Latin American market, where News and Hughes compete.

What really distinguished last week`s result was its balance. News Corp`s big three businesses - film, television and print media - all contributed to the $1.05 billion net profit, and the massive write-downs that propelled the group to a $US6.2 billion loss in 2001-02 were not repeated.

In that respect, the result signalled that Murdoch`s period of on-market atonement for mistakes made during the internet-media-telco boom was over.

News confessed to some major errors in the year to June 30, 2002. In the December half, the group announced that it was writing down the value of three big sports broadcasting contracts by $US909 million and writing down the carrying value of investments in Germany`s Kirch media group by $US785 million.

News paid $US1.9 billion for the rights to televise Nascar, $US2.4 billion for baseball and, in 1998, a staggering $US4.4 billion for the broadcast rights to American football for eight years.

It seemed like a good idea at the time: Murdoch wasn`t alone in the `90s when he paid up to secure content. But after writing down the value of the contracts (and boosting their future profitability) in February last year, he admitted that contract prices had been pushed "beyond an economic level" in the boom.

His deputy, Peter Chernin, was more direct, saying the conclusion was that News had "overpaid".

The Kirch write-down was separate but part of the same reality check. The German media group was headed for bankruptcy at the time, after over-paying for sports coverage rights, including Formula 1.

Murdoch`s clean-up culminated in the second half of 2001-02, when another round of write-downs centred on an investment in a small US company, Gemstar, took the total loss for the year to June 30 to $US6.2 billion, or $11.96 billion at the ruling exchange rate.

Gemstar was also a boom-time mistake: News had accepted Gemstar shares as payment for its TV Guide magazine, in the belief that Gemstar`s digital TV channel guide technology would pave the way for interactive TV surfing.

The time to buy News shares was when the big loss was announced last August. But as ABN Amro`s media analyst, Peter Shorthouse, points out, that is something that has been more obvious to international investors than it has been to local ones.

On Wall Street, News Corp`s American Depository Receipts (ADRs) fell from over $US66 at the peak of the internet-media boom early in 2000 to $US18.03 last August, about the time the huge loss was announced.

News Corp shares hit a low of $8.46 a share in Australia, reflecting the fact that each ADR is worth four News Corp shares, and that the Australian dollar was being valued at US53c.

News shares recovered over the rest of 2002 and then fell with the market at large in the first quarter this year, to hit lows of $US22.84 on Wall Street and $9.39 in Australia in mid-March. Based on Friday`s Australian closing quote of $12.35, News has rallied by 31 per cent locally since then.

But the rally on Wall Street has been more impressive.

The ADRs are up 42.3 per cent since March, to $US32.50. And the ADRs have now risen by 80 per cent from their August 2002 low.

In Australia, News shares are only 46 per cent above their August 2002 low.

The difference reflects the 24.5 per cent appreciation in the value of the Australian dollar against the greenback since last August.

News Corp is an Australian-registered company. But it is the Wall Street move which most accurately reflects the progress that Murdoch has made.

Operations in the US generated almost 76 per cent of News`s revenue in the year to June 30, accounting for 81.5 per cent of the operating profit of $US2.53 billion, up from $US1.86 billion a year earlier.

[mrsjones]

momentan bei 7,45 (+ 2,76 %)!!

[orwell1984]

Aust stocks strengthen at noon driven by Telstra and News Corp
Source: AAP
Published: Wednesday August 27 2003, 1:15 PM

MELBOURNE, Aug 27 AAP - The Australian share market continued to strengthen to noon today with investor optimism rising in the wake of some positive company results.

By 1205 AEST, the benchmark SP/ASX 200 index was 14.2 points stronger at 3181.4, while the all ordinaries index gained 13.2 points to 3180.5.

On the Sydney Futures Exchange, the September share price index contract was up 18 points at 3175 - a 7.5 point discount to the benchmark index - on a volume of 3174 contracts traded.

Macquarie Financial Services analyst Rod Halligan said the market was driven by strong trade in Telstra, News Corp and the banks.

In the United States stocks ended slightly higher after the release of mostly positive economic data.

The Dow Jones industrial average ended up 22.81 points at 9340.45.

The broader Standard Poor`s 500 Index edged up 3.02 points at 996.73 and the technology-laden Nasdaq Composite Index added 6.34 points to 1770.65.

more Stock Move Price

AMP +0.110 5.020

ANZ Bank +0.200 18.040

BHPBilton -0.050 10.590

CBA -0.060 28.480

NAB +0.290 32.220

News Corp +0.150 12.910

Rio Tinto -0.440 33.060

TelstraCp +0.060 4.830

WestpacBk +0.240 16.190


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mr Halligan said trade had been active with Telstra going up on good volume ahead of its results tomorrow morning.

"People are hoping for some positive surprises there," he said.

"Suncorp is also up ahead of its results on Friday.

"And News Corp seems to be going up every day at the moment as a result of its good advertising figures coming out of the US.

[meforpresident]

News Corp. sells Sky Perfect stake

Australian media giant News Corp. said Friday it has sold its entire 8.1 percent stake in satellite broadcaster Sky Perfect Communications Inc. to three Japanese companies.
The three firms are Fuji Television Network Inc., Sony Broadcast Media Co. and Itochu Corp.

They are the three largest shareholders in Sky Perfect.

Their equity stake rose to 12.7 percent apiece with the purchase of Sky Perfect shares held by a News Corp. subsidiary.

News Corp. did not disclose the sale price or the reasons behind the deal, stating merely that it wants to maintain cooperative relations with Sky Perfect

[meforpresident]

hoppla, was ist denn da passiert
die steht momentan auf 8 Euro

[meforpresident]

aus dem Investor Report von Bell Potter Securities Limited:

News Corporation (NCP)
Ahead of expectations $13.20

News Corporation (NCP) reported operating profit of US$570m for the fiscal 2003 fourth quarter, which was 7%
ahead of our forecast. In particular, the results from TV (8% above), Film (23% above), and Cable (14% above) exceeded our expectations. Newspaper earnings were the key disappointment, with the benefit of the cessation of the UK price war offset by increased promotional
spend in the period.

We estimate that NCP converted approximately 90% of reported EBITDA into operating cashflow for the year. The
strength of the result was further demonstrated by a significant improvement in key debt measurements.
Both EBITDA to Gross Interest and Gross Debt to EBITDA are now comfortably inside the minimum level requirements for
investment grade credit rating.

The company commented that it expects its credit rating to improve in the coming 12 months as these measures improve
further.

Fiscal 2004 guidance

The company provided its first guidance for FY04. NCP remains confident of growth in the current year at all of its key divisions. After admitting that Film earnings are notoriously difficult to predict, NCP guided EBITDA growth in the mid-teens for Fox Entertainment, while EBIT guidance for News Corporation, (including a full year loss estimate for Sky Italia), is in the high single to low double digit range. In both cases, this guidance was marginally ahead of our expectations.

Recommendation

Our revised forecasts incorporate a 12.1% EBIT growth in FY04E, which translates into EPS growth of almost 30%.
On this basis, the prospective 2004 PER is 27.5x.
Our Buy 2 recommendation is reiterated, with earnings momentum factors likely to remain strong over the next 6 to 12 months.

[FrontrunningInsider]

deutliche Korrektur, gehts noch mal unter 7?


FrontrunningInsider

[FrontrunningInsider]

Liberty Media übt Option zum Kauf von Anteilen an der News Corp. aus
01.10.2003 10:08:00



Der australische Medienkonzern News Corp. Ltd. gab am Mittwoch bekannt, dass die amerikanische Liberty Media Corp seine Option zum Kauf von Vorzugsaktien der News Corp. im Wert von insgesamt 500 Mio. Dollar ausgeübt hat.
Die Transaktion zwischen beiden Unternehmen war bereits im März dieses Jahres vereinbart worden um dem australischen Medienimperium von Rupert Murdoch liquide Mittel zur Finanzierung seiner Akquisition der Beteiligung des amerikanischen Automobilkonzerns General Motors Co. an der Hughes Electronics Corp. zur Verfügung zu stellen.

Die News Corp. hatte zuvor die Anteile des amerikanischen Automobilkonzerns an Hughes Electronics sowie dessen Satellitenkanal DirecTV für insgesamt 6,6 Mrd. Dollar erworben. Die Transaktion soll Konzernangaben zufolge im Dezember dieses Jahres abgeschlossen werden.

Nach Angaben der News Corp. wird Liberty Media die Anteile für jeweils 21,50 Dollar je Aktie übernehmen, was gegenüber dem Schlusskurs vom Dienstag einem Abschlag von knapp 21 Prozent entspricht. Die Transaktion soll binnen zwei Wochen abgeschlossen werden, hieß es.

Die Aktie der News Corp. schloss am Dienstag an der Börse von Melbourne mit einem Minus von 1,83 Prozent bei 11,80 A-Dollar, die Aktie von Liberty Media schloss an der NYSE mit einem Minus von 0,10 Prozent bei 10,30 Dollar.

-msp- / -red



FrontrunningInsider

[Traderandy]

seltsamer Chart...

[NakedCowboy]

News Corp tipped to unveil healthy Q1 earnings
Source: SYDNEY, Nov 3 AAP
Published: Monday November 3 2003, 6:30 PM

Rupert Murdoch`s News Corp Ltd is expected to deliver healthy first quarter earnings this week, buoyed by a recovery in its newspaper business and more box office hits.

Analysts believe the media giant`s newspaper business will have benefited from the recent end to the cover price war between News Corp`s British tabloid The Sun and its main rival The Mirror.

A pick up in advertising at the group`s Australian newspapers, which include The Daily Telegraph in Sydney and the Herald Sun in Melbourne, are also expected to lift the division`s earnings.

"We forecast a strong result from the newspaper and filmed entertainment segments," UBS media analysts wrote in a note to clients ahead of News Corp`s results on Thursday. advertisement

advertisement

"For the former, this incorporates a full quarter from the cessation of cover price discounting.

"We expect another solid result from the filmed entertainment segment, reflecting another quarter without a box office loss and continued home entertainment video sales."

News Corp recorded a net profit of $295 million for the first quarter in 2002/03.

UBS has forecast a first quarter net profit of $304 million this time around while Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) has pencilled in $474 million and Goldman Sachs JBWere is forecasting $515 million.

The result is expected to include a $US110 million loss from Sky Italia.

None of the analysts expect News Corp to change its forecast of high single digit to low double digit earnings growth for the full year.

CSFB`s analysts said the quarter result would also be underpinned by contributions from British satellite TV company BSkyB, in which News Corp holds a 35.4 per cent stake, and its US cable TV network.

News Corp`s filmed entertainment arm is also expected to show improvements, given the success of movies including X2:X-Men United, 28 Days Later and Down With Love.

CSFB expects the division to lift its earnings before interest and tax by 17 per cent to $US117 million.

However, News Corp`s television station business in the US is expected to have endured a marked slowdown in revenue growth, in part because of the October and November months of the previous year having included significant amounts of political spending.

In contrast, its Fox cable network is expected to deliver 2.6 per cent revenue growth, translating into a breakeven quarter, according to UBS.

News Corp`s shares closed steady at $12.55 while its preferred scrip fell one cent to $10.36.

By Belinda Tasker

[NakedCowboy]

wieder News:

News Corp. Said to Seek Russia Satellite TV
By ERIN E. ARVEDLUND

Published: November 10, 2003

Editors` Note Appended

MOSCOW, Nov. 9 - NTV, one of Russia`s biggest national television networks, has been in discussions with Rupert Murdoch and the News Corporation regarding the sale of NTV`s satellite business, said two people close to the negotiations.

Such a sale would come as part of a broad restructuring by the television channel`s parent company, Gazprom, a government-owned natural gas concern. This month, Gazprom will hold its annual board meeting, where it is likely to discuss the fate of its media holdings.

Advertisement


NTV is one of the three main television networks in Russia, and its satellite subscription business, NTV Plus, has roughly 200,000 customers. According to one banker who analyzes Russian media, the satellite service could fetch as much as $250 million. However, it would be unlikely for even part of a state-owned network to change hands until after the presidential election in March.

Still, even the prospect of a sale of a Russian television asset, amid a government crackdown on the free press here, has only highlighted how highly politicized and tightly controlled television has become here. Each of the three major television networks - NTV, Channel One and Rossiya - is now directly or indirectly controlled by the Russian government.

Mr. Murdoch is seen as someone comfortable doing business with state-controlled media markets.

"Murdoch`s got no problem doing business with the state," said one person close to Gazprom Media, the company`s media division. "He can toe the party line like he did in China. He is loyal, and he gets the business, because he`s looking down the road 5 or 10 years."

NTV was started in 1993 amid an explosion of post-Soviet free press by the media magnate Vladimir Gusinsky, who broadcast programs critical of the government. Mr. Gusinsky also frequently used the network for his own political agenda, rallying viewers behind the re-election of former President Boris Yeltsin.

Now part of Gazprom, NTV has lately had a decline in ratings, in line with most Russian networks, and criticism of the government has largely vanished from its broadcasts. In addition to NTV and NTV Plus, Gazprom Media controls second-tier channel THT, 66 percent of Ekho Moskvy radio and has a controlling stake in the Sem Dnei, Seven Days, publishing house.

NTV`s waning independence, analysts say, illustrates a quandary for Russia`s media business. Russia`s economy is booming, with gross domestic product expanding at roughly 6.5 percent this year, and its media advertising market is expected to grow to $2.7 billion for 2003, up from $1.99 billion in 2002.

But NTV and other major TV networks have been muzzled in part by a creeping news blackout that began when President Vladimir V. Putin took office in 2000. Ratings have suffered, making media companies harder to value.

As the flagship of Mr. Gusinsky`s Media-Most investment company, NTV initially backed Mr. Putin for president. But after Mr. Putin took office, Mr. Gusinsky was forced to sell NTV to Gazprom. Mr. Gusinsky fled the country and now lives in Israel, and the Russian government has tried unsuccessfully in European courts to have him extradited.

Boris Jordan, an American of Russian descent, was hired by Gazprom to run NTV after Mr. Gusinsky left, but was fired this year.

At the time, there was speculation in the Russian press that the Kremlin had punished Mr. Jordan for NTV`s aggressive reporting of the Moscow theater siege by Chechnya militants in October 2002. NTV`s Savik Shuster, the host of a talk show, was criticized for having relatives of the theater hostages on her program.

Mr. Jordan also tried to appeal to a younger audience, buying the rights to broadcast HBO`s "Sex and the City" and "The Sopranos" in Russian. NTV has since sold "Sex and the City" rights to another network, and its overall ratings dropped at the end of September to 10 percent of viewers from a peak, 19 percent, early last year, Mr. Jordan says.

NTV is not alone in juggling the bottom line and the party line. Few networks now cross President Putin or his administration.

The arrest last month of Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky, Russia`s wealthiest citizen and a billionaire oilman, was barely mentioned all weekend on news programs. Charged with tax evasion, fraud and embezzlement, he has contended that the Kremlin is behind his arrest and prosecution because he has financed parties and candidates independent of Mr. Putin.

But amid the current squeeze on TV outlets, even an industry giant like Mr. Murdoch may have trouble breaking in. "Mr. Putin for three years tried to establish complete control over all the channels," said Igor Malashenko, an executive who works with Mr. Gusinsky and now lives in London. "He succeeded, and he`s not going to lose it now."


Editors` Note

An article in Business Day yesterday reported on discussions between Rupert Murdoch`s company, the News Corporation, and a Russian media company, Gazprom. Citing people close to the negotiations, the article said the News Corporation was in talks on a potential acquisition of the satellite business of NTV, the television network owned by Gazprom. The Times should have obtained comment from the two companies.

Both said yesterday that although they held general discussions earlier this year, there were no negotiations about the sale of NTV assets. (Nov. 11, 2003)




NC

[NakedCowboy]

aktuell 11,79 AUD, Kursziel 15 AUD.


NC

[Gewuerzburg]

tut sich ja nicht viel oder?

[NakedCowboy]

naja, zieht schon etwas an...


NC