News Corp has posted an 8 per cent drop in quarterly profit.
News Corp said profit fell to $400 million, or 13 cents a share, in the fiscal third quarter ended March 31st from $434 million, or 15 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue rose 17 per cent to $6 billion.
The company posted a 9 per cent rise in operating income to $889 million, but net income fell because of a $77 million loss from the restructuring of a cable sports network co-owned with Cablevision Systems Corp.
News Corp also said a settlement of Liberty Media Corp's voting stake in the company is likely to occur in the current quarter.
Rupert Murdoch, chairman and chief executive officer of the movie studio and television conglomerate, said the company aims to find a way to resolve lingering issues with Liberty before the end of the current quarter.
Investors have worried about Liberty's plans ever since its chairman, John Malone, quietly accumulated an 18 per cent voting stake in News Corp last year, stoking fears of a takeover.
Wall Street has hoped that News Corp, which in March completed the purchase of shares of the Fox Entertainment Group it did not own, would turn its attention to buying back Liberty's stake or launch a big buyback of its shares.
