News Corp results disappoint market

News Corporation, Rupert Murdoch's media conglomerate, disappointed the Australian market after posting lower than expected results for the year to June, But the company softened the blow by announcing a good performance of some of its key UK and US operations and its intentions to buy back some of its preferred limited voting stock. One analyst said the results were "very disappointing".

The company reported a 2.5 per cent rise in underlying net profits to A$1.295bn (pounds 602m). UK newspapers such as The Times exceeded expectations, but the HarperCollins publishing division reported an abnormal loss of A$575m because of restructuring costs.