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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Boeing Reports Loss For Quarter And Year

From Staff And Wire Reports

Boeing, scrambling to integrate McDonnell Douglas while coping with serious production problems, posted its first annual loss in 50 years Tuesday.

A fourth-quarter loss of $498 million, or 51 cents a share, pushed Boeing’s loss for 1997 to $178 million, or 18 cents a share. Boeing earned $444 million, or 46 cents a share, in the fourth quarter of 1996 and $1.8 billion, or $1.85 a share, for the full year.

The last time Boeing reported an annual loss was in 1947, when it lost $448,400.

Boeing’s fourth-quarter results represented its second-straight quarterly loss. Boeing lost $696 million, or 72 cents a share, in the 1997 third quarter.

In the fourth quarter, Boeing took a pretax charge of $1.4 billion to cover the cost of phasing out McDonnell Douglas commercial-jet production lines in California. Boeing also gained $99 million in pretax income from an investment intended to give employees stock incentives under its ShareValue Trust program.