WMG Quarterly Losses Widen To $68M

Warner Music Group (WMG) losses widened to $68 million or 45 cents per share for the fiscal quarter ending March 31; up from $37 million a year earlier. The loss included major write-downs of investments in 2 lala and imeem totalling 22 cents oer share

Revenue fell 17% to $668 million. A poll of seven analysts by Thomson Reuters had predicted a loss of 25 cents a share on revenue of $739 million. Blaming its own release cycle, WMG reported

that operating income from continuing operations declined 46% to $15 million compared  to $28 million in the prior-year quarter.  Overall operating income before depreciation and amortization  fell 17% to $80 million from $96 million in the prior-year quarter.

Even digital sales, which should have been a bright spot for WMG, showed signs of slowing. Digital revenue of $173 million now represent 26% of total revenue. That's up just 1%  from the first quarter of fiscal '09 and up only 6% from  the prior-year quarter.  On a constant-currency basis, digital  revenue grew 11% from the prior-year quarter and 3% sequentially.