Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., home to media including the Wall Street JournalDow Jones and HarperCollins announced they would lay off 5% of their workforce as they announced disappointing quarterly results.
The company reported revenue of $2.52 billion, a shade below Wall Street analysts’ consensus forecast of $2.55 billion, according to Refinitiv. Earnings per share missed by a wider margin, coming in at 14 cents on an adjusted basis, compared to a Street forecast of 19 cents. (As reported, earnings per share were 12 cents.)
“It is clear that rising interest rates and acute inflation have had a noticeable impact on all of our businesses,” CEO Robert Thomson said in the press release. “But we believe these challenges are fleeting rather than eternal. Just as our business passed the stress test of the pandemic with record earnings, the initiatives underway now, including an expected 5% or approximately 1,250 job reductions this calendar year, will provide a robust platform for future growth.
The company and its Murdoch-controlled sibling Fox Corp. abandoned a potential reunion effort last month after being separate entities for nearly a decade. Especially after the sale of most of 21st Century Fox to Disney in 2019, many investors have been scrutinizing the outlook for both companies as they compete with larger rivals. Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch said Wednesday during the company’s quarterly conference call with analysts that “size matters,” adding that the company will “look at M&A.”
News Corp attributed the 7% decline in sales compared to the year-ago quarter to a number of factors. These included currency fluctuations, lower book publishing revenue primarily due to lower book sales, and lower Digital Property Services revenue due to difficult housing market conditions in Australia and the US. On the positive side, Dow Jones surpassed 5 million subscribers overall in the quarter, leading to increases in revenue, and Foxtel and the New York Post also painted black.
Rupert Murdoch is executive chairman of News Corp. and chairman of Fox Corp.
Source: Deadline
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