News Corp. Q1 Earnings Boosted By Tax Benefit

(RTTNews) - News Corp. (NWS) reported earnings for the first quarter that rose sharply from last year, boosted by a sizable tax benefit. Revenues at the media giant slipped 4 percent, hurt by currency fluctuations and a decline in advertising revenue in its news division.

The company reported net income for the first quarter of $175 million, up from $65 million in the same period last year. Earnings per share from continuing operations rose to $0.22 in this year's first quarter, compared to $0.15 last year.

The bottom line included a number of one-time items, including a $106 million tax benefit. Stripping out those items, the company's adjusted profit totaled $32 million, or $0.05 per share, in the first quarter. This compared to $74 million, or $0.13 per share, in the same period last year.

Analysts expected the company to earn $0.06 per share, according to figures compiled by Thomson Reuters.

Revenue for the period dipped to $2.01 billion, down 4 percent from $2.11 billion in last year's first quarter. Adjusted revenue, which leaves out the impact of things like acquisitions and foreign currency fluctuations, slipped just 1 percent.

Wall Street had projected revenue to come in at $2.09 billion.

The company saw an 11 percent slide in revenue at its News and Information Services unit, hurt by a drop in advertising revenue. There was a similar fall-off in revenue at the firm's Cable Network Programming unit, though that is now the firm's smallest division, contributing just $124 million in quarterly revenue.

On the bright side, revenues skyrocketed at the firm's Digital Real Estate Services unit, which includes realtor.com. Revenues were up 71 percent from last year, rising to $191 million this year compared to $112 million last year. Revenue from book publishing was also up, though by the much more modest figure of 1 percent.

(Previously, a report on News Corp's Q4 earnings release was erroneously printed in this space)