Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp sales fall short of expectations
The figures
News Corp’s sales missed analysts’ expectations, with total revenue falling two per cent to $2.14bn from $2.19bn.
Rupert Murdoch’s publishing company reported a net loss of $379m, against a $12m profit a year ago.
At 7 cents, earnings per share beat forecasts, with analysts’ predicting earnings per share of 5 cents.
News Corp shares are down 10 per cent over the year, but surged four per cent on the results in after-hours trading.
Why it’s interesting
The publishing world’s transformation from print to digital has struck ad sales hard, and Murdoch's News Corp cites this as one of the main reason for its total revenue falling short of expectations, but as print revenue continues to fall, the company has been working hard to compensate by boosting digital revenue.
News Corp had high hopes for its digital education business, but these would seem to have fallen short, as tonight’s results show the company taking a $371m writedown on the unit.
What they said
Robert Thomson, chief executive, said:
Despite an uneven global economy, very tough currency headwinds and the ongoing transformation of the media landscape, for fiscal 2015 we posted stable revenues, robust EBITDA growth and healthy free cash flow.