News Corp: Surprisingly high quarterly profit thanks to Avatar
The movie *Avatar* helped the media conglomerate News Corp post a high quarterly profit. Operating profit from News Corp's Hollywood operations tripled to $324 million thanks to the 3-D film, which received nine Oscar nominations.
Ticket sales for Avatar have so far amounted to more than 2 billion dollars worldwide. The science fiction film has thus already replaced Titanic as the most commercially successful film. Group CEO Rupert Murdoch announced on Tuesday, according to SDA in New York, that the DVD of Avatar will now be released as quickly as possible. According to his announcement, a large part of the revenue should flow in by the middle of the year. The company also announced that a recovery in the advertising business had contributed to market expectations being exceeded. According to Murdoch, growth will continue in the coming months. Investors reacted promptly: News Corp shares rose by 3 percent in after-hours trading.
Revenue up ten percent
Net profit for the second quarter amounted to 254 million dollars. A year earlier, News Corp had posted a loss of 6.4 billion dollars due to write-downs on the acquired US publisher and Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones. The media group's revenues rose by ten percent to 8.7 billion dollars, exceeding analysts' forecasts. The quarterly profit includes a 500 million payment that News Corp had to make to the media and marketing company Valassis Communications following a legal dispute.
Revenue up ten percent
Net profit for the second quarter amounted to 254 million dollars. A year earlier, News Corp had posted a loss of 6.4 billion dollars due to write-downs on the acquired US publisher and Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones. The media group's revenues rose by ten percent to 8.7 billion dollars, exceeding analysts' forecasts. The quarterly profit includes a 500 million payment that News Corp had to make to the media and marketing company Valassis Communications following a legal dispute.
