Nov

8

Walt Disney Profits Fall by 13%

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Entertainment conglomerate Walt Disney Co reported that its quarterly profit fell 13% owing to a combination of bad financial decisions and less successful films at the box office.

Walt Disney announced its fourth fiscal results on Thursday which revealed that its profits had come down to $760 million or 40 cents a share in the quarter from a profit of $877 million or 44 cents a share in the same quarter previous year. Revenue however rose 6% to $9.45 billion on improved performance from the company’s cable business as well as theme parks. According to analysts polled by FactSet Research, the company’s profits had been forecast at 49 cents a share on sales of $9.31 billion.

Walt Disney officials revealed that the decline in profits were mainly due to a $91 million bad debt charge on a payment due from financial services firm Lehman Brothers which went bankrupt in September and in the process triggered off a financial meltdown of global proportions.

Chief Executive of Walt Disney Bob Iger said at a conference call that the general slowdown in the economy had also played a major role in the decline of the company’s profits. With shrinking spending power, consumers were cutting down on entertainment expenses and thus bookings at Disney’s theme parks and entertainment venues had fallen considerably over the past month.

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Nov

8

Surge of Text Messages Sent on Election Night

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Three of the four major wireless carriers in US reported at least a ten percent surge in text messaging on the night the country elected its newest president.

AT&T said on Thursday that on election night it witnessed the largest jump in text messaging in the company’s history as traffic jumped by 44%. Sprint too claimed that there was at least a 30% surge in text messages sent in LA County between seven and nine on election night. According to Sybase 365, another provider of mobile messaging service, the number of text messages sent shot up by three times the normal level during the ten minutes after West Coast polls closed and TV channels declared Barack Obama the winner of the presidential elections.

The surge in text messaging that occurred on election night can be put in perspective when compared to the rise in text messages sent on other important occasions. While AT&T reported messaging services peaking by 44% on election night, in comparison last year’s Christmas saw a 30% spike in traffic while Valentine’s Day witnessed a marginally better 33% boost. Last New Year’s Day however saw a slightly more modest 26% rise in text messaging service.

The interesting phenomenon perhaps can be seen as marking a fitting end to a presidential campaign that made innovative use of text messaging services as an effective campaign strategy.

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Nov

8

Grim Forecast for Retail Industry Ahead of Holiday Season

Filed Under Economy | Leave a Comment

Most US retailers reported double digit declines in sales on Thursday for the month of October even as the industry geared up for the crucial holiday shopping season, just days away.

The fall in October sales figures come after a lack-luster September and predict a holiday shopping season that might see some of weakest numbers in recent times. This is mainly because of restricted consumer spending which marked the steepest decline in the last seventeen year when it fell 3.1% in the third quarter.

The retail industry is also anticipating further bad news on Friday when the Labor Department comes out with the employment figures which many expect will reveal thousands of jobs lost in the past month. Job cuts are especially detrimental to retail activity since it restricts the spending power of consumers.

Another trend obvious in the retail figures of October revealed that the economic downturn had affected the entire spectrum of retailers, from the luxury stores to the discount outlets. On the higher end, luxury department chain Neiman Marcus reported the steepest drop - 27.3% - while others to experience two-digit sales decline were Abercrombie & Fitch, Gap, Nordstrom. Among the discount stores the main retailers to be affected were Costco, Big Lots, Target, Ross Stores, T.J.Maxx and others.

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