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GE loses Peacock pride

By
Peter Lauria
Published Jan. 23, 2010, 5:00 a.m. ET

General Electric boss Jeff Immelt is probably glad NBC Universal could soon be someone else’s problem.

The entertainment giant was again the outlier within the giant company, posting a 28 percent decline in fourth-quarter profit at a time when most of GE’s other businesses were on an upswing.

What’s more, things aren’t likely to be much better in the first quarter of 2010, as GE warned NBCU’s loss from its broadcast of the Winter Olympics, which start next month, will now top $250 million, vs. earlier estimates of a $200 million loss.

The fourth-quarter results and loss warning on the Games marked a fresh round of bad news for NBCU, whose image was already tarnished because of lackluster ratings.

It took another beating in the past few weeks as it upended its late-night lineup by pushing out Conan O’Brien as host of “The Tonight Show” and reinstalling Jay Leno as that show’s host following his disastrous foray into primetime.

But, in a twist, it turned out NBCU’s fourth-place broadcast network wasn’t responsible for the fourth-quarter decline in profit.

Rather, it was Universal Studios that largely contributed to NBCU’s dismal performance. The unit was down $200 million due to box-office bombs such as “Land of the Lost” and a slowdown in DVD sales.

NBCU’s profit was $602 million for the quarter, a decline of 28 percent from the prior year, while revenue declined nearly 4 percent to $4.2 billion.

NBCU’s cable networks continued to show strength, recording an 8 percent jump in revenue.

By contrast, revenue at the NBC broadcast network fell 1.2 percent.

O’Brien is responsible for at least part of that revenue decline, as NBC executives have said publicly that “The Tonight Show” was losing money for the first time in its history under the red-headed host’s stewardship.

“Everyone’s aware of what’s going on with late night and NBC’s attempts to reset the Olympics, so there’s really not much I can add there,” Immelt said yesterday on a conference call to discuss earnings.

GE in November agreed to merge NBCU with cable giant Comcast in a $37 billion deal that is expected to face significant regulatory scrutiny, a process Immelt said was just now getting underway.

Meanwhile, GE’s finance unit continued to struggle, though Immelt indicated it was showing signs of stabilizing. GE Capital posted a 67 percent drop in fourth-quarter profit on souring commercial real-estate loans.

Overall, GE did manage to beat analysts’ estimates for the quarter, as the company reported a 19 percent decline in profit to $3.01 billion, or 28 cents a share. Revenue advanced 10 percent to $41.4 billion. [email protected]