News Corp sales rise on "Borat", "X-Men"
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News Corp. said on Wednesday that quarterly revenue rose 18 percent, helped by "Borat" movie ticket sales and "X-Men" DVDs, and it issued a very optimistic profit outlook for its Internet division next year.
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News Corp., the media company controlled by Rupert Murdoch, said fiscal first-quarter profit rose 27 percent, partly because advertising sales increased at its cable-television networks including Fox News Channel.
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Rupert Murdoch's News Corp is eyeing a move into the video games market, the Financial Times says.
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U.S. stocks rose on Monday, with  investors betting on good earnings news as the fourth-quarter  reporting season kicks off, while cable operator Comcast Corp.  CMCSA.O helped lift the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq with a 2  percent climb.
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Rupert Murdoch's News Corp (NWSa.N)  posted a moderate rise in fiscal second-quarter profit on  Monday on higher advertising sales at its Fox News channel and  the Fox television network, offsetting a decline in its movie  studio business.
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Desktop publishing software maker Adobe Systems Inc. said Monday its fiscal fourth-quarter profit and sales rose to beat Wall Street's expectations, fueled by strong sales of Creative Suite 3 and Acrobat.
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Rupert Murdoch's News Corp posted a  moderate rise in fiscal second-quarter profit on higher  advertising sales at its Fox News channel and the Fox  television network, offsetting a decline in its movie studio  business.
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News Corp's Fox network generated  about $250 million from Super Bowl television advertising  revenue, Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch said.
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Viacom Inc. VIAb.N on  Thursday said its quarterly profit from continuing operations  rose 12 percent on higher cable network advertising sales and  announced a larger-than-expected stock repurchase, sending its  shares up 3 percent.
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News Corp., the media company controlled by Rupert Murdoch, agreed to sell eight of its Fox network-affiliated television stations in the United States to Oak Hill Capital Partners for about $1.1 billion in cash.
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Media conglomerate News Corp.  said on Wednesday its quarterly revenue rose 18 percent, helped by "Borat" box office sales and "X-Men" DVDs, but profit fell due to a one-time gain a year earlier.
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New York Times Co.  shares rose  as much as 7.5 percent on Wednesday and options traders cited  unusual call volume on speculation billionaire investor Warren  Buffett could build a stake in the company.
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News Corp Chairman Rupert Murdoch  received a pay raise last fiscal year, boosting his  compensation package to $24.3 million, nearly matching the pay  of his second in command.
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The New York Times Co  reported a 6.7 percent rise in profit on Tuesday because of higher national advertising sales and a price increase for its flagship newspaper, sending its shares up as much as 8 percent.
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Media giant Reuters on Thursday posted rising third-quarter revenues, as it shrugged off recent global markets turmoil ahead of its agreed takeover by Canadian rival Thomson Corp.
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(InfoWorld) - With the first six months of the year gone, IT companies are riding high in the markets, and mergers and acquisitions have helped stoke investor interest in technology. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained 7.8 percent in the first half. The day before the U.S. Independence Day holiday on July 4, the Nasdaq rose 12.65 points to close at 2644.95, a six-and-a-half year high. Most analyst firms are still predicting modest overall global IT spending growth of about 6.5 percent above last year. But strong corporate earnings, better-than-expected growth in certain sectors, and M&A activity are contributing to a sense of exuberance, especially in certain sectors. Both Gartner and IDC have recently raised predictions, for example, for PC shipment growth this year. Now comes news that M&A deals continue to experience a torrid pace. For the first six months of the year, 1,930 deals worth about $347 billion were reported, according to The 451 Group. While the number of deals declined slightly from last year, the dollar value skyrocketed about 50 percent from last year, according to a 451 Group report. About half the deals involved acquisitions by public companies, and half involved private equity companies. Also, the pace of M&A is accelerating, according to the report. After $95 billion in M&A deals in the first quarter, second-quarter M&A spending jumped to $252 billion. IT is getting a lion's share of M&A dollars. For example, in the first six months of the year, IT services deals amounted to about $94.7 billion, while software deals excluding storage and security companies amounted to $27.6 billion, according to 451 Group. These days, M&A activity is being seen as a healthy sign. That was not always the case. "PE (private equity) used to buy broken companies," noted 451 Group financial analyst Brenon Daly. But now there are various reasons why IT services and software companies are targets, he noted. "It's not a great time to be a public company," Daly said. For example, there is a lot of scrutiny on companies being brought to bear by Sarbanes-Oxley rules, he noted. Thus, there are a lot of willing buyout targets, especially among smaller companies, he said. IT services companies are popular targets because once the difficult sales cycle is accomplished, long-term contracts lock in revenue for a foreseeable period, Daly said. Software companies in mature markets may see new license revenue slowing down but have a solid business in maintenance revenue. Though 451 does not track telecommunications deals specifically (telecom M&A is included in its total tally, however), recent telecom deals have also excited the market. For example, AT&T's announcement FridayÂ it would buy carrier Dobson CommunicationsÂ for about $2.8 billion helped lift the Nasdaq to its high level earlier this week. M&A deals help boost IT investor interest in several ways, noted Daly. First of all, as companies are bought and taken off the market as targets, there are fewer companies to invest in, even as a liberal lending regime continues to stoke opportunity and interest. Also, M&A sparks a continual guessing game of Who's Next? Excited investors essentially place bets on companies they think will be the next to be snapped up. It's not all smoke and mirrors, though. Several quarters of healthy corporate earnings have given a solid underpinning to investor interest in tech. The earnings-report season is getting underway in the next few weeks, and industry watchers will get a sense of how the next six months will play out.
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Rupert Murdoch&#39;s News Corporation, basking in the glow of its successful shift to the United States, has unveiled a 27 per cent rise in first quarter profit and declared it is on the cusp of a new and more profitable era.