ACQUISITION COSTS FUEL TIME WARNER LOSSES.Byline: Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. Time Warner Inc. posted a wider second-quarter loss Tuesday as residual costs from recent cable television acquisitions overwhelmed o·ver·whelm tr.v. o·ver·whelmed, o·ver·whelm·ing, o·ver·whelms 1. To surge over and submerge; engulf: waves overwhelming the rocky shoreline. 2. a. higher profits from its media and entertainment properties. Time Warner's filmed entertainment business was the company's best performer in the April-June quarter due to the box-office success of the films ``Twister'' and ``Eraser.'' Its publishing, HBO Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBO) A form of oxygen therapy in which the patient breathes oxygen in a pressurized chamber. Mentioned in: Ozone Therapy pay-cable services and cable television system operations also posted profit gains for the quarter while its recorded music recorded music n → música grabada business matched last year's performance. But the company's depreciation and amortization costs resulting from more recent cable TV system acquisitions continue to leave the company short of profitability. Time Warner is also carrying a $15 billion debt, much of it resulting from Time Inc.'s 1989 purchase of Warner Communications Inc. Time Warner was off 62-1/2 cents a share at $33.25 in trading on the New York Stock Exchange New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) World's largest marketplace for securities. The exchange began as an informal meeting of 24 men in 1792 on what is now Wall Street in New York City. . Time Warner lost $40 million in the three months ended June 30 in contrast to a loss of $8 million a year earlier. After preferred dividend preferred dividend n. a payment of a corporation's profits to holders of preferred shares of stock. (See: preferred stock) payments, the loss for each common share was 28 cents vs. 3 cents a year earlier. Revenue from its own operations as well as its majority-controlled Time Warner Entertainment venture rose 9.4 percent to $4.75 billion from $4.34 billion a year ago. The company said combined earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) is a non-GAAP metric that can be used to evaluate a company's profitability.
Time Warner and other debt-laden media companies encourage analysts and investors to follow this measurement as an indication of how they are doing at running their businesses. On that basis, profits rose 21 percent in filmed entertainment, 16 percent at HBO, 15 percent in publishing and 13 percent from cable TV systems. The music division was flat, as gains in the domestic operations were offset by lower results from international music and direct marketing. The WB Network had a loss of $12 million for the quarter, the same as a year ago. The television network expanded from one to two nights of programming last fall. |
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