Time Warner Q1 Income Slides On “Declines At All Operating Divisions”
April 26, 2018
Time Warner Q1 Income Slides On “Declines At All Operating Divisions”
The judge’s decision can’t come quickly enough.
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Time Warner followed AT&T’s lackluster first quarter earnings report yesterday with a mixed-bag announcement of its own this morning. Revenues for the period increased 3% to $8 billion on growth at Turner and HBO, partially offset by a decline at Warner Bros. Operating income decreased 13% to $1.8 billion and 8% on an adjusted basis to $2 billion, which the company blamed on “declines at all operating divisions.”
As they have done for the past several quarters, executives cited the pending merger for their reason for skipping the quarterly conference call with Wall Street analysts. In the earnings announcement, CEO Jeff Bewkes said, “We’re off to a strong start to 2018 and we remain on track to meet the financial goals we laid out at the beginning of the year, as we continue to execute our strategic objectives.”
The $85 billion merger between AT&T and Time Warner has been bottlenecked in the courts over the past five months, after the government sued to block the deal. Both sides are expected to deliver closing arguments in the lawsuit on Monday, but U.S. District Court Judge Richard J. Leon is not due to issue his decision for several more weeks.
The quarterly numbers showed the financial toll of the 18-month saga of getting regulatory approval. For the period ending March 31, the company said merger costs totaled $146 million, up from $82 million in the year-ago quarter.
Along with the quarterly figures, Time Warner also reaffirmed its full-year guidance for high-single-digit growth in adjusted operating income. The outlook does not include the impact of mergers or any costs associated with the pending AT&T deal.