News Corp. Swings to Profit, Stock Gets Goosed

Yesterday after the stock market closed, Rupert Murdoch‘s News Corp. (NWS) media empire reported fiscal fourth-quarter and full-year results. Wall Street liked what it saw, briefly sending the stock up more than 6% this morning.

Including special items like the sale of a Bulgarian TV station (who knew!) and a litigation settlement, the company swung to a fourth-quarter profit of $875 million from a loss of $203 million a year ago. Operating income came in at $932 million, vs. $948 million in the fourth quarter of 2009. The company’s cable programming, TV and newspaper segments had strong performances, while other business segments lagged, the company said.

Full-year net income came in at $2.5 billion, vs. a loss of $3.4 billion in 2009. Revenue rose 8% to $32.8 billion for the year.

“Despite the volatility of world economies, News Corporation continues to thrive on a truly global scale,” said Murdoch in a statement. “These results underscore just how well positioned we are — fiscally, operationally and strategically — for further growth across all of our markets. The opportunity for us to expand the scale of our franchises is significant, including through taking advantage of the continual technological advances that will broaden the reach of our core content and distribution businesses.”

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