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 "As you know, yesterday, we walked away. This is our resolute
decision," Fox Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Rupert
Murdoch said in a rare appearance on the company's conference
call late Wednesday.
Murdoch, conceding defeat, was further explaining the company's
rational for pulling its bid on Tuesday.
Fox Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey backed up Murdoch and
went further: "Let me be clear, we are done ... We have no plans
to pursue any other third party content company as an
alternative to Time Warner."
Earlier, Time Warner Chief Executive Jeff Bewkes, speaking on
the company's own earnings conference call, also weighed in on
the scuttled Fox bid, which the CNN and Warner Brothers studios
owner had aggressively resisted, as well as the merits of
megadeals in general.
"I would just encourage everybody to look at all sides of the
issue when contemplating the benefits and risks of putting very
large companies together," Bewkes said to an analyst.
Indeed, since taking the helm of the media conglomerate in 2008,
Bewkes has trimmed down Time Warner - shedding properties like
AOL Time Warner Cable, and Time Inc and making it an
attractive target for acquisitive-hungry rivals.
Bewkes said he feels that Time Warner is already at scale,
especially for its studio business Warner Bros which he
described as the "biggest producer of content in the world" to
its collection of cable networks which also dominate.
"We are not lacking something we need," he said.
Time Warner needs to show it can go it alone after fiercely
refusing to engage in talks with Fox, which offered to buy it in
a deal for about $80 billion and would have created one of the
world's largest media companies with two major studios, a bevy
of cable networks and pay-TV channel HBO.
Time Warner reported higher-than-expected quarterly profit on
Wednesday and boosted its share buyback program by an additional
$5 billion.
"When faced with a hostile takeover bid, Time Warner did exactly
what they should have done. They crushed the numbers," wrote
Michael Nathanson with MoffettNathanson Research in a note to
investors.
The strong results and shareholder-friendly measure could not
prevent Time Warner's stock from sliding. The shares closed down
13 percent at $74.24 - well below the $85 per share offer from
Rupert Murdoch's Fox.
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Time Warner said it will host an investor's day in the fall to
unveil more details about its long-term strategy.
'GAME OF THRONES'
Revenue from Time Warner's Home Box Office unit jumped 17 percent to
$1.42 billion for the second quarter, helped by the popularity of
"Game of Thrones" and other HBO shows.
The company said the fourth season of "Game of Thrones," which ended
in June, was the most watched season of an original series in HBO's
history. The Emmy award-winning fantasy epic had an average gross
audience of 19 million viewers.
The company's Turner Networks unit — home to CNN, TBS and TNT — also
posted an increase in revenue on higher subscription and
advertisement sales.
Net income from continuing operations attributable to Time Warner
common shareholders rose to $843 million, or 94 cents per share, for
the three months ended June 30, from $698 million, or 73 cents per
share, a year earlier.
On an adjusted basis, the company earned 98 cents per share.
Revenue increased to $6.79 billion from $6.61 billion.
Analysts, on average, had expected a profit of 84 cents a share on
revenue of $6.87 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
The company forecast full-year 2014 adjusted profit growth in the
low teens in terms of percentage, off a base of 2013 adjusted
earnings of $3.51 per share.
Time Warner said in April it expected its full-year adjusted profit
to grow in the low- to mid-teen percentage range, or better, for at
least the next three or four years.
(Reporting by Aurindom Mukherjee and Lehar Maan in Bangalore;
Editing by Joyjeet Das, Robin Paxton, Bernadette Baum and Bernard
Orr)
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