General Electric’s stock took a beating today losing nearly 13% and wiping $47 billion dollars out of GE’s market cap.
NBC Universal in which GE has 80% stake posted 3% profit increase, not the 5-10% projected but still their sixth straight quarterly gain! That’s $3.58 billion revenue and $712 million profit, versus $691 million a year ago. So much for aches and pains. Maybe they can send WTVJ some money to help with the bills.
Local advertising spending at NBC-owned stations fell 11%, even with political ad spending, and GE’s CFO says that is because “it’s tough out there”. Not tough enough for NBCU’s cable channels which had double-digit growth with advertisers throwing money at USA, Bravo and Sci-Fi the most. Too bad it’s not in euros