Income Falls for Disney in Q4

The consumer products and interactive media division of The Walt Disney Co. were the bright spots in the fourth quarter for the entertainment and media conglomerate, according to its recent earnings release. The Burbank-based company reported a net income of $835 million, or $0.43 per diluted share, on revenues of $9.7 billion for the quarter ending Oct. 2. For the same period in 2009, Disney reported net income of on revenues of $895 million, or $0.47 per diluted share, on revenues of $9.9 billion. For the quarter, consumer products and interactive media were the two divisions with double digit revenue increases over a year ago. Consumer products was helped by licensing revenue growth driven by the strength of Toy Story and Marvel merchandise while higher net effective pricing on self-published video games driven by “Toy Story 3,” and increased subscribers at Disney’s mobile phone service business in Japan helped interactive media. Both media networks and parks and resorts saw a decrease in revenues from the fourth quarter of 2009, while the studio entertainment division had a 6 percent increase over the previous year’s fourth quarter, helped by strong international box office for “Toy Story 3.” For the full fiscal year, Disney had net income of $4 billion, or $2.03 per diluted share, on revenues of $38 billion. For the previous fiscal year, the company had net income of $3.3 billion, or $1.76 per diluted share, on revenues of $36.1 billion. All five divisions had revenue increases over the previous fiscal year, with consumer products the strongest with a 10 percent gain and parks and resorts the weakest with a 1 percent gain. Mark R. Madler