Disney's Profit Surges, But Costs Rise as It Splurges on Content
May 08 2019 - 5:17PM
Dow Jones News
By Maria Armental
Walt Disney Co.'s profit nearly doubled in the latest period as
it acquired a controlling stake in streaming service Hulu with the
closing of a roughly $71 billion deal with 21st Century Fox.
The results for the March quarter, which included 11 days of
operating results from Hulu and former Fox properties, showed
expenses outpaced revenue growth as Disney continued to ramp up
investments in content and technology. Some of that spending is
part of a high-stakes bet on streaming that will essentially give
Disney control over three services: ESPN+, Disney+, and Hulu.
Shares in Disney, which beat Wall Street targets on sales and
profit in the latest period, rose 1.4% in after-hours trading.
CNBC reported last month that Comcast Corp. was negotiating a
possible sale of its Hulu stake to Disney, which would shift the
streaming service's full ownership to Disney. Disney didn't comment
Wednesday on the reported deal talks.
The Fox deal -- which put under one roof lucrative properties
such as "The Simpsons" and "Avatar" alongside Disney's "Star Wars"
and Marvel Studios -- still has some moving parts.
Disney agreed to sell Fox's regional sports networks as a
condition of the government's deal approval. Last week, the company
stuck a roughly $10 billion deal with Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc.
over 21 regional sports networks
The YES Network, the television home of the New York Yankees,
wasn't included in that deal; but Disney is negotiating a sale of
the network to a group that includes Sinclair, the New York Yankees
and Amazon.com Inc., The Wall Street Journal reported.
Disney's fiscal second-quarter profit rose to $5.45 billion, or
$3.55 a share, from $2.94 billion, or $1.95 a share, a year
earlier. Excluding a gain tied to acquiring a controlling stake in
Hulu, a $353 million impairment charge on its Vice investment and
other one-time items, profit fell to $1.61 a share from $1.84 a
share.
Revenue rose 3% to $14.92 billion.
Analysts surveyed by FactSet expected profit excluding special
items of $1.58 a share on $14.49 billion in revenue.
The direct-to-consumer division -- which includes Disney- and
ESPN-branded international cable networks as well as investments in
Hulu and Vice -- reported $955 million in revenue, up 15% from the
year earlier, and an operating loss of $393 million in the March
quarter.
Expenses rose about 10% to $11.53 billion.
Write to Maria Armental at maria.armental@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 08, 2019 17:02 ET (21:02 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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