Time Warner posts loss; cable spinoff plans 1,250 layoffs

NEW YORK -- Time Warner posted a loss of $16.03 billion, or $4.47 a share, compared with profit of $1.03 billion, or 28 cents a share, a year ago.

Quarterly results were dragged down $4.70 a share mostly due to the $24.2 billion write-down.

Time Warner had anticipated the write-down, predicting in January that it would record an operating loss for the fourth quarter and the full year.

Excluding the write-down, adjusted earnings were 23 cents a share.

Revenue for the period ended Dec. 31 dipped 3% to $12.31 billion on softness in its filmed entertainment, AOL and publishing units.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters forecast earnings of 26 cents a share on revenue of $12.71 billion. Analysts' estimates typically exclude one-time items.

Time Warner Cable, which is being spun off from its parent, reported a net loss of $8.16 billion, or $8.36 cents a share, in the fourth quarter including a $14.82 billion charge to write-down the value of cable franchise rights and a loss of $13 million on the sale of cable systems.

It earned $327 million, or 33 cents a share, a year earlier.

Revenue rose 8% to $4.4 billion.

Time Warner is nearing completion of the Time Warner Cable spinoff, which is anticipated to close in the first quarter. The cable company will pay a one-time dividend of $10.9 billion to shareholders, the bulk of which will go to the parent.

The move is expected to help the remaining company better focus on its strengths in content, especially if it can also shed all or part of AOL, acquired as part of AOL's $106 billion purchase of Time Warner in 2001.

At AOL, revenue slid 23% to $968 million as subscription revenue tumbled 27% and ad sales dipped 18%.

Filmed entertainment revenue dropped 11% to $3.1 billion.