Warner Music losses deepen

Warner Music Group Corp., one of the world’s largest recording companies, said Tuesday its fiscal third-quarter loss widened as more people bought digital music, rather than CDs.

The loss for the quarter ended in June was $17 million, or 12 cents per share, versus a prior-year loss of $14 million, or 10 cents per share. Excluding nonrecurring items related to a corporate restructuring and settlement, the loss in the 2007 quarter was $29 million, or 20 cents per share.

Revenue declined 2 percent year over year to $804 million from $822 million. On a constant-currency basis, revenue fell 5 percent.

On average, analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial forecast a quarterly loss of 14 cents per share on revenue of $836 million.

•Cisco Systems Inc.‘s fiscal fourth-quarter profit jumped 25 percent as the network equipment maker continued to see strong sales of the routers and switches that direct traffic over the Internet and other technologies tied to a boom in multimedia online content. Shares jumped more than 5 percent on a boosted long-term financial forecast.

Net income for the period ended July 28 was $1.93 billion, or 31 cents per share, compared with $1.54 billion, or 25 cents per share, during the same quarter a year ago.

Excluding one-time charges, Cisco earned 36 cents per share, a penny above the estimate of analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial.

•Marsh & McLennan Cos., the largest U.S. insurance brokerage, on Tuesday said second-quarter profit rose 3 percent, driven by revenue growth in its risk and insurance business and consulting operations.

The company also said it approved a new $1.5 billion share buyback, which follows the completion in July of a $500 million repurchase program.

Net income rose to $177 million from $172 million a year ago. The average number of shares outstanding shrunk to 542 million from 550 million and per-share profit was flat at 31 cents.

Restructuring and other charges cut profit by 4 cents per share in the recent quarter, compared with charges of 5 cents per share a year ago.

Excluding results from the recently sold asset management arm Putnam Investments and other now-discontinued businesses, earnings totaled $140 million, or 25 cents per share, compared with $131 million, or 24 cents per share, in the second quarter last year.

•Electric utility TXU Corp. said Tuesday its second-quarter profit plunged 76 percent due to cool weather that turned down demand for air conditioning and to costs related to its pending sale to private investors.

TXU, which agreed in February to be bought by a group of private-equity investors for $32 billion, said earnings after dividends to preferred shareholders dropped to $121 million, or 26 cents per share, from $497 million, or $1.07 per share, a year earlier.

Excluding one-time costs and gains, TXU said its earnings fell to 93 cents per share from $1.40 per share a year ago.

Revenue fell 24.2 percent to $2.02 billion, far below analysts’ forecast of $2.51 billion. Retail sales of electricity in TXU’s home market of North Texas fell 30 percent.

•Duke Energy Corp., one of the largest electric power companies in the United States, said Tuesday its second-quarter profit fell 17 percent after it spun off its natural gas business at the beginning of the year.

Duke earned $293 million, or 23 cents per share, in the second quarter of 2007, down from $355 million, or 28 cents per share, during the same period in 2006.

Excluding special items and discontinued operations, the company said it earned 25 cents per share in the period.

Analysts polled by Thomson Financial forecast a profit of 20 cents per share. Thomson estimates usually exclude special items.

•Harrah’s Entertainment Inc., which is being taken private in a $17.1 billion deal, said Tuesday its second-quarter profit surged 85 percent, as visitor volume powered growth in Las Vegas and a new race track casino in Pennsylvania offset weak results in Atlantic City, N.J.

The world’s largest casino company posted an increase in net profit to $237.5 million, or $1.25 per share, versus $128.6 million, or 69 cents per share, in the prior-year period.