Economic downturn hits Disney with drop in net earnings

Posted | Contributed by Walk

The global economic downturn hit Walt Disney Co's quarterly results harder and faster than Wall Street expected, with the company on Thursday reporting a sharp decline in hotel bookings and softness in advertising revenue at its networks.

Disney reported net earnings of $760 million, or 40 cents per share, down from net earnings of $877 million, or 44 cents per share in last year's fourth quarter. Revenue rose 6 percent to $9.45 billion from $8.93 billion a year earlier. Analysts, on average, expected revenue of $9.33 billion for the quarter, according to Reuters Estimates.