If you couldn’t tell by the way the market has been acting the past week Q2 is now behind us and it’s time for earnings reports. Apple announced last week and has been on a wild roller coaster this week. Only time will tell what will happen next. As for now here’s a brief run-down of how a few key industry leaders did.

Wall Street Sign

Dreamworks Animation: DWA
After going public in October 2004 the animation unit at Dreamworks has seen rough times. It’s been holding fairly steady from 22-30 since June of 2005. However, after it’s 2Q report the stock has jumped up into the low 30s. With a limited supply of films this struggle unit has relied heavily on Shrek to bring in the green. Currently the 2nd highest grossing film of 2007 ‘Shrek the Third’ has topped $720 million worldwide and helped to increase the net income of Katzenberg’s baby up to $61.8 from $13.7. 3Q will rely heavily on the overseas take of ‘Shrek the Third’ and a strong hope that people haven’t forgotten to buy ‘Flushed Away’ and ‘Over the Hedge’.

Time Warner: TWX
Relying heavily on it’s cable, publishing and networks operations Time Warner Inc. also reported an increase in earnings. Reporting a net income of 1.1bln up from 1.0bln last year. Two units failed to bring an increase over last year. AOL had a drop in revenue of 38% as it continues to struggle with it’s identity in the current marketplace. Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema the companies film studios had a 5% decrease despite ‘300’ pulling in big numbers this past Spring. Next quarter will see much higher earnings in the film units as the latest ‘Harry Potter’ has topped ‘Shrek the Third’ worldwide in only two weeks.

Viacom: VIA
Owner of Paramount Pictures, MTV, BET, Nickelodeon and the distributor of huge hits such as ‘Transformers’ and “Shrek the Third’ saw a slight dip this past quarter. Reporting a 13% increase over last year to $3.19 bil Paramount was helped out largely in part due to it’s filmed entertainment division producing hits like ‘Blades of Glory’ and ‘Disturbia’.

CBS: CBS (whadya know?)
Bucking the trend, television is down. Earnings for CBS Corp. fell sharply and is struggling on it’s own after splitting from Viacom in January of 2006. Revenue fell 3% to $3.37 bil from $3.48 billion last year. Looks like the only major broadcaster to not be under the umbrella of a larger media company is struggling a bit. ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Co., Fox is owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., and NBC is under the NBC/Universal branch of General Electric. Maybe there is something to that synergy thing.

Walt Disney Co.: DIS
Despite not seeing the grosses they hoped for from tent-poles Pirates 3 and Pixar’s ‘Ratatouille’ Disney reported earnings to be up, revenue rose 7% to $9.045 bil from $8.47 bil a year ago. With ESPN still mandating the highest rate for a cable channel in the industry and the U.S. $ going down each month pushing foreign tourist into Disneyland and Disney World Parks 3Q earnings look to be just as strong.


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