Time Warner rebounds to quarterly profit

Feb 3, 2010, 18:56 GMT

New York - US media conglomerate Time Warner reported a 627-million-dollar quarterly profit Wednesday in a sign that the financial pressure on large media companies may be easing.

The upbeat report came just a day after News Corp also reported stronger than expected earnings thanks to the performance of blockbuster film Avatar and improved advertising sales. Time Warner also said an improved advertising climate contributed to its profits, as did strong revenues from its film and television divisions.

Time Warner's 627-million-dollar profit compared to a loss of 16 billion dollars in the year-ago quarter when the huge media company was forced to write down 7.2 billion dollars of assets. Revenue rose to 7.32 billion dollars, a 2.2 per cent rise from the same quarter last year.

Since then the company has spun off its cable business and AOL internet division, a decade after its disastrous 106-billion-dollar merger with the then internet giant.

AOL has since been decimated by a switch to broadband from the dial-up internet access subscription business that was the basis of its strength. But even AOL reported a profit Wednesday, in its first quarterly report as an independent company and as it tries to transform from an internet access company to a provider of internet content and services with websites like tmz.com and engadget.com.

AOL said it earned 1.4 million dollars for the quarter, compared to a 1.9 billion dollar loss last year that included 2.2 billion dollars in write downs. Revenue dropped 17 per cent to 808 million dollars, due to declining subscriptions and continued weakness in its advertising market, the company said.