News Corp Class B (NASDAQ:NWS) stock fell 8.39% (As on February 10, 11:42:10 AM UTC-4, Source: Google Finance) after the company said that it would cut 5% of its workforce, or 1,250 jobs, after the media conglomerate fell short of quarterly Wall Street estimates, hurt by declines across its businesses including news. The company also said it incurred $6 million in one-time costs associated with its merger with Fox Corp, plans for which News Corp Executive Chairman and Fox Co-Chairman Rupert Murdoch scrapped in January. Rising inflation and higher interest rates are forcing companies to curb spending on advertising and marketing, denting one of the major sources of revenue for companies such as News Corp, which has publishing platforms including the Wall Street Journal. The company said that in the third quarter it expects to see one-time costs related to the withdrawn Fox-News Corp proposal and its previously announced exploration of a sale of Move Inc, which operates the Realtor.com website, to CoStar Group.

NWS in the second quarter of FY 23 has reported the adjusted earnings per share of 14 cents, missing the analysts’ estimates for the adjusted earnings per share of 19 cents. The company had reported 7 percent fall in the adjusted revenue to $2.52 billion in the second quarter of FY 23, missing the analysts’ estimates for revenue of $2.55 billion, according to Refinitiv data. The decline was primarily due to a $171 million, or 6%, negative impact from foreign currency fluctuations, lower revenues at the Book Publishing segment primarily due to lower book sales and lower revenues at the Digital Real Estate Services segment due to challenging housing market conditions in Australia and the U.S. The decline was partially offset by higher Dow Jones segment revenues, which includes the acquisitions of OPIS and Chemical Market Analytics (“CMA”), and higher Subscription Video Services revenues on a constant currency basis. Net income for the quarter was $94 million, a 64% decline compared to $262 million in the prior year, primarily due to lower Total Segment EBITDA, and higher losses from equity affiliates due to losses from the Company’s investment in a newly launched sports wagering platform in Australia, partially offset by lower tax expense. The Company reported second quarter Total Segment EBITDA of $409 million, a 30% decline compared to $586 million in the prior year.