Viacom profit off as it preps Rock Band sale

Viacom Inc. said Thursday it plans to sell the company that developed the Rock Band video game franchise, a move that cut the media conglomerate’s third-quarter earnings by 59 percent.

The division, called Harmonix, has dragged on the company’s results for the past several quarters as shoppers continue to avoid big discretionary buys.

But Viacom’s adjusted results beat Wall Street expectations and its publicly traded shares climbed $1.24, or 3.2 percent, to $39.34 in pre-market trading.

Viacom, controlled by billionaire Sumner Redstone, said its cable properties, which include BET, MTV, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon, continued to take in more advertising revenue as ratings improved. Revenue from its Paramount Pictures division also edged up, though profits in the division slipped.

Overall, the New York-based company said its net income fell to $189 million, or 31 cents per share, from $463 million, or 76 cents per share, a year ago.

Excluding results from Harmonix and other unusual items, Viacom’s adjusted earnings would have climbed to 75 cents from 71 cents per share. That’s 5 cents better than analysts expected, according to a survey by Thomson Reuters.

Revenue climbed 5 percent to $3.3 billion from $3.17 billion, matching the average Wall Street forecast.