LONDON - The word on the street is that a revival of the dot com boom is upon us. If true, then as some entrepreneurs dither at reliving the trauma of a costly cyber-dream, the fortunate few like Rupert Murdoch can hedge their bets, thanks to financial cushions like News Corp. Just as the billionaire chief executive has been touting his push into digital media with a clutch of new Web-based properties, profits for his media giant nearly tripled in its second quarter.
News Corp. earned $1.08 billion in the three months to December, a sharp rise from the $386 million it had garnered for the same year-earlier period. Some $381million of the gain came from selling the company's educational subsidiary, TSL, last autumn.
But even without the sale, Murdoch would have beat analysts' expectations with earnings of $694 million, or 22 cents per share, from normal operations. Credit has been especially due to brighter results from Fox broadcast network and cable network programming. Even so, the plucky patriarch seems adamant to shake off the media purist label by ballyhooing his faith in News Corp.'s digital media ventures, even though they have yet to affect the bottom line.
Over $1 billion was reportedly pumped into Murdoch's "new distribution outlets," last year, including the acquisition of MySpace.com for $850 million and IGN Entertainment for $650 million. Murdoch believes they'll prove a pleasing return. The CEO was quoted in a recent media report as saying he expected his Internet get-ups to bring in around $350 million this year, and in the coming years to become one of his leading drivers of growth. Tradition is there for the breaking, though you can still bet on it for raking in the cash.
