8/3 – Time Warner 2Q Upbeat But Future Revenue a Concern

Time Warner Inc.’s second-quarter net income increased 14 percent as the media giant recorded its fastest revenue growth in nearly four years. The results beat analysts’ forecasts and were bolstered by improved advertising sales. Still, ad revenue growth wasn’t a blowout. Despite adding NCAA college basketball playoff games to its Turner networks in a new deal with CBS Corp., ad revenue overall rose just 8 percent. Time Warner said Wednesday that net income for the three months that ended in June grew to $638 million, or 59 cents per share, from $562 million, or 49 cents per share, a year earlier. Excluding special items, earnings were 60 cents per share, above the 55 cents per share that analysts polled by FactSet had expected. Revenue grew 10 percent to $7.03 billion from $6.38 billion. Analysts expected lower revenue of $6.81 billion. Time Warner said it was the fastest revenue growth since the third quarter of 2007 — back when it still owned AOL and Time Warner Cable, which are now separate companies. In that quarter, revenue grew 9 percent.