Hughes Posts Loss; Revenue Rises 20%

Hughes Electronics Corp. said Tuesday that it swung to a loss in the fourth quarter on reorganization and severance charges, even as it recorded record subscriber growth at its DirecTV satellite television network.

Hughes is now controlled by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., which bought a controlling interest in the company from General Motors Corp. last year. The deal closed in December.

The El Segundo-based company reported a net loss in the quarter ended Dec. 31 of $310 million, or 22 cents a share, contrasted with net income of $113 million, or 8 cents, in the same period last year.

Revenue grew more than 20% to $2.95 billion on a rise in subscribers to DirecTV and increased sales of television set-top boxes. DirecTV added 405,000 subscribers during the quarter.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call had been expecting a loss of 5 cents a share.

The loss was primarily because of a $193-million reorganization expense related to the bankruptcy filing of DirecTV Latin America as well as a pretax charge of $132 million spent on severance packages and employee retention resulting from the News Corp. transaction and a special dividend of $275 million paid to General Motors as part of the deal.

Last year’s quarter included a one-time gain of $600 million paid by EchoStar Communications Corp. as a result of EchoStar’s termination of its proposed merger with Hughes.

On an operating basis, excluding one-time payments and charges, Hughes reported a loss of $113 million, contrasted with income of $18 million in the same period last year.

Shares of Hughes were up 58 cents to $17.68 on the New York Stock Exchange.

For the full year, losses narrowed to $361.8 million, or 26 cents a share, compared with a loss of $894 million, or 70 cents, in 2002.

Revenue increased more than 14% to $10.12 billion from $8.86 billion in 2002.