First it was Big Tobacco. Then Big Oil. Now Big TV. Wonder if we'll hear complains about excessive profits??
Cable TV Drives Up Time Warner 1Q Profit
By SETH SUTEL
AP Business Writer
NEW YORK (AP) -- Time Warner Inc. reported a higher first-quarter profit Wednesday, driven by strong results in cable TV and a gain from selling its book group, but investors were disappointed by another slump at AOL.
Profit at the New York-based media conglomerate jumped nearly 60 percent to $1.46 billion, or 32 cents a share, in the January-March period from $915 million, or 19 cents per share a year ago, as revenues rose 1 percent to $10.46 billion. Time Warner's properties include Warner Bros., Time Inc., CNN and HBO.
Even after stripping out the $206 million gain from the book group sale and other one-time effects, earnings rose 32 percent to $1.2 billion from $908 million, or to 26 cents per share versus 19 cents. That was well ahead of the 20 cents a share expected by analysts polled by Thomson Financial, as the company bought back nearly $4 billion of its own stock in the quarter.
However, worse-than-expected losses of dial-up subscribers to its AOL unit and a 17 percent slide in profits there unsettled investors, who sent the company's share price down 28 cents, or 1.6 percent, to $17.14 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
JPMorgan analyst John Blackledge described Time Warner's results as "mixed" in a note to investors, saying the AOL subscriber loss of 835,000 was worse than expected due to continued falloff of dial-up users. Merrill Lynch analyst Jessica Reif Cohen said in a note that the profit slide at AOL was "even more dramatic than we had anticipated" as the company promoted its high-speed Internet offerings.
Time Warner has been revamping its AOL business from a subscription model to one based on Internet advertising, an approach used with great success by Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. Yet while AOL's advertising revenues grew 26 percent to $392 million in the quarter, that wasn't enough to offset the 13 percent decline in subscription revenues to $1.54 billion. As a result, overall revenues at AOL fell 7 percent.
Time Inc., a major publisher of consumer magazines including Time, People and Sports Illustrated, also turned in a lackluster quarter with profits down 12 percent on essentially flat revenues. The company noted declines at its overseas editions and restructuring charges of $12 million as the unit revamped its corporate hierarchy.
"Overall, the consumer magazine business struggled," Time Warner's CEO Dick Parsons said on a conference call with analysts and investors.
Capitalism. Free enterprise. Everybody is free to set their own prices on goods and services. If you think it costs too much don't buy / use it. Pretty simple.
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If you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got.
There's one enormous difference there , nobody has to have cable , we all depend on oil . The comparison is irrelevant at best .
Obviously there is a difference. But my premise is that if we are going to complain about excess profit, we need to be consistent. What does need have to do with it?
There's one enormous difference there , nobody has to have cable , we all depend on oil . The comparison is irrelevant at best .
Obviously there is a difference. But my premise is that if we are going to complain about excess profit, we need to be consistent. What does need have to do with it?
Of all the factors that drive our capitalist economy the two largest factors are need and greed . We need oil , cable is simply a superfluous item of greed . The crab fishermen on "Deadliest Catch" make 40 cents per pound , Red Lobster marks that up by thousands of percent and nobody says a word . Why aren't more folks boycotting Red Lobster for ripping them off ? Because crab legs aren't important to them . Need is most definitely a factor when calculating the value of a product , greed is just wishful thinking unless you can find suckers . Consistancy is also impossible to apply to a (supposedly) free market economy , it's only possible in a totally regulated one like they have in China or Russia .
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Kevin Haendiges
NAHC Life Member
NRA Member
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http://hunting-indiana.com
There's one enormous difference there , nobody has to have cable , we all depend on oil . The comparison is irrelevant at best .
Obviously there is a difference. But my premise is that if we are going to complain about excess profit, we need to be consistent. What does need have to do with it?
Of all the factors that drive our capitalist economy the two largest factors are need and greed . We need oil , cable is simply a superfluous item of greed . The crab fishermen on "Deadliest Catch" make 40 cents per pound , Red Lobster marks that up by thousands of percent and nobody says a word . Why aren't more folks boycotting Red Lobster for ripping them off ? Because crab legs aren't important to them . Need is most definitely a factor when calculating the value of a product , greed is just wishful thinking unless you can find suckers . Consistancy is also impossible to apply to a (supposedly) free market economy , it's only possible in a totally regulated one like they have in China or Russia .
The profit margins of the food and beverage industries are higher than the oil industry. And we need food more than we need oil.
I understand where you are coming from. But, the realitiy is that despite our need for oil, we can affect our consumption of it. My position is that if it's unethical (or illegal?) for Exxon to do it, it ought to be the same for the food and beverage industry, banking, cable, etc.
I have to agree with Kevin on this one. I have 50 bucks in my pocket and walk into Red Lobster to eat a meal. This is because I am fully willing and able to pay the 50 bucks for a lobster dinner and a few drinks. My hands aren't tied and I have free will to do so. Now, at the same time I have 50 bucks in my pocket to buy gas which I know is way out of hand and the oil companies are making record profits.This time I really want to walk out and not buy their product andfeel no effect howeverI have no choice in the matter. If I want to get to work and feed my family and not lose my house I MUST pay for that gas even though I don't want to. To me that's a huge difference. In economicsas everyone knows it's supply and demand which keeps markets in check and prevents prices of goods from gettingout of hand. That just doesn't work with the oil industry as well. Yes, the supply part can change on a dime, no problem. But the demand part of the equation is a little tougher. People just can't stop buying gas or the country would crumble. If time warner's prices for HBO would skyrocket and cost $250.00 a month like my gas spending I can bet everyone would drop the service, nobody would be any worse for the wear and time warner would either immediately drop prices or stop offering that service. I'd like someone to tell me the oil industry is no different than that.
I feel that when something is a necessity and there isn't any price competition between companies there should be some sort of regulation. Oil isn't like an industry such as automotive where companies can make cheaper cars to offer consumers a choice to save mony. Nope, oil is set by the barrel and it's not like I can drive to sunoco and save 1.00 a gallon because they are the Hyundai of the oil industry.
__________________ Last edited by CalHunter; 08-10-2009 at 01:21 PM. Reason: Inappropriate--called a mbr "douchebag"
Fair enough NC , food is definitely a need , though I disagree that we don't need oil as much or even more .
I can grow all my own food , but it would be a pain in the ass so I'm willing to pay for the convenience of someone else growing , transporting , marketing , and keeping it safe and fresh for me . Can you grow and refine your own oil ? Other than ethanol or biodiesel the answer is no . I'm actually toying with the biodiesel idea personally . Better question , how important to our national security are crab legs ? Can our economy survive without them ? I used to have a crab and lobster trap when I lived in Kookifornia , but king crab legs were still a fantasy unless I went to a restaurant because king crab don't exist anywhere else in San Diego . Speaking of transportation , which just happens to be what I do for a living , how does food get to market ? For that matter how does anything get to market ? How do tractors keep running to plow the fields ? How does electricity for refrigeration get generated ? None of them run on crab legs , I can assure you . The real issue here is whether or not Big P is taking unfair advantage of market conditions at a time when prices are already high to extract an usurious profit from us simply because they have us by the short and curlies .
__________________
Kevin Haendiges
NAHC Life Member
NRA Member
Wildlife Forever Member
GOA Member
Buckmasters Member
http://hunting-indiana.com
Fair enough NC , food is definitely a need , though I disagree that we don't need oil as much or even more .
I can grow all my own food , but it would be a pain in the ass so I'm willing to pay for the convenience of someone else growing , transporting , marketing , and keeping it safe and fresh for me . Can you grow and refine your own oil ? Other than ethanol or biodiesel the answer is no . I'm actually toying with the biodiesel idea personally . Better question , how important to our national security are crab legs ? Can our economy survive without them ? I used to have a crab and lobster trap when I lived in Kookifornia , but king crab legs were still a fantasy unless I went to a restaurant because king crab don't exist anywhere else in San Diego . Speaking of transportation , which just happens to be what I do for a living , how does food get to market ? For that matter how does anything get to market ? How do tractors keep running to plow the fields ? How does electricity for refrigeration get generated ? None of them run on crab legs , I can assure you . The real issue here is whether or not Big P is taking unfair advantage of market conditions at a time when prices are already high to extract an usurious profit from us simply because they have us by the short and curlies .
OK. I agree with your distinction between necessities and crab legs. How should the government regulate the profit margin for industries involved in producing necessities like oil? Who determines what is excessive?
Time Warner is Hosing Americans
