by Tatiana Repkova

Media tycoon Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. suffered a drop February 7 in quarterly earnings compared to a year earlier, when it had reaped an exceptional tax gain. Murdoch said that nevertheless, the media and entertainment group's performance during its second fiscal quarter "was a success both financially and strategically." News Corp.'s net profit for the October-December quarter came to 822 million dollars compared to 1.07 billion in the same period of 2005, when it benefited from a hefty tax gain on its non-US earnings. Excluding that exceptional gain, the company said its net profit in the quarter rose 18 percent while its earnings per share came to 26 cents, in line with Wall Street forecasts. News Corp.'s revenues also advanced by 18 percent in the period to 7.84 billion dollars in the quarter. AFP; February 7, 2007