Time Warner posts smaller 2Q net, affirms outlook

[July 29, 2009]  NEW YORK (AP) -- Media conglomerate Time Warner Inc. said Wednesday its second-quarter profit shrank 34 percent as the ad slump and slow DVD sales hurt revenue in the company's publishing, movie and online properties.

But the New York-based company affirmed its full-year adjusted earnings projection of roughly $1.98 per share, or flat year-over-year.

Time Warner, which owns the Warner Bros. movie studio, the HBO and Turner cable networks, Time Inc. magazines and the AOL Internet portal, earned $519 million, or 43 cents per share, in the three months ended in June. That's down from $792 million, or 66 cents per share, a year earlier.

Last year's results include earnings from its recently spun-off cable unit. Earning from continuing operations, which exclude results from Time Warner Cable, fell 8 percent.

Excluding items, the company said it would have earned 45 cents per share in the most recent quarter. Analysts, who typically exclude items, expected 37 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters.

Revenue fell 9 percent to $6.81 billion, shy of the average forecast, $6.97 billion.

The company's networks segment, which includes Turner and HBO, held up the best. Sales grew 5 percent to $3 billion as higher subscription revenue offset lower ad sales.

But filmed entertainment tumbled 9 percent to $2.3 billion as slow DVD sales dragged down revenue.

The publishing unit took a beating from the industrywide advertising slump. Advertising revenue in publishing plunged 26 percent.

AOL, which Time Warner plans to spin off into a separate company, was pummeled by ad declines as well as subscriber losses. Overall revenue at AOL dropped 24 percent to $804 million.

[Associated Press]

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