Profit Flat at Disney, as ESPN and Parks Smooth Setbacks in Film

The film, released on July 3, cost about $400 million to make and market but has taken in only $175.6 million worldwide, roughly half of which goes to theater owners. While other studios have also had flops this summer, “The Lone Ranger” is by far the biggest: Disney on Tuesday said losses from the film would total $160 million to $190 million, depending on how well it does overseas.

For the fiscal third quarter that ended on June 29, prerelease marketing expenses for “The Lone Ranger” contributed to a 36 percent decline in operating income at Walt Disney Studios. That decline offset growth from Disney’s cable TV and theme park units, and Disney reported an overall profit of $1.85 billion — essentially flat from the same period a year ago.

That profit translated to $1.01 a share. In the year-ago quarter, net income was $1.83 billion or $1.01 a share. Revenue climbed 4 percent, to $11.58 billion.

Speaking to analysts in a conference call, Robert A. Iger, Disney’s chief executive and chairman, did not point fingers at “The Lone Ranger,” starring Johnny Depp, directed by Gore Verbinski and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer.

“We still believe that a tent-pole strategy is a good strategy,” Mr. Iger said, referring to big-budget movies. “You still have to make really strong films.”

The full write-down for “The Lone Ranger” will be taken in the current quarter, the fourth in Disney’s fiscal year.

As usual, the Disney division that includes ESPN drove the company’s financial performance; operating income at the Media Networks unit rose 8 percent, to $2.3 billion. ESPN benefited from contractual rate increases from cable providers and higher advertising sales, although programming costs also climbed. In particular, ESPN had to pay more for Major League Baseball rights.

Even though the Easter holiday fell in a different quarter this year, operating income at Disney’s theme parks increased 9 percent, to $689 million. The company said growth came from higher spending at Walt Disney World in Florida and Disneyland in California, both of which set attendance records.

In addition to trouble at its live-action Disney movie label, the entertainment giant faced trouble in the gaming and broadcast television divisions.

As expected, Disney’s video game and Web unit continued to struggle ahead of the release later this month of a major new gaming initiative called Infinity. Interactive operating losses widened to $58 million from $42 million.

Operating income at the ABC broadcast network and a string of local TV stations fell 21 percent, to $213 million, because of higher prime-time programming costs, lower sales of reruns and a decline in advertising revenue tied to a decline in ratings.

Mr. Iger said he is “bullish” on the new programs ABC plans to introduce in the fall, but added, “until the season unfolds, you can never quite tell.”

Siemens to Oust Chief After String of Setbacks That Prompted Profit Warning

FRANKFURT — The supervisory board of Siemens, one of Germany’s largest companies, said that it would fire its chief executive at a meeting on Wednesday and replace him with an insider following a string of problems that led to a profit warning last week.

Peter Löscher, an Austrian who has been chief executive of the electronics and engineering giant since 2007, is taking the blame for a series of missteps that have plagued the company during the last year, including a late delivery of high-speed trains for the German national railroad and delays in completing offshore wind turbine projects.

The German news media reported that Joe Kaeser, a member of Siemens’s managing board and its chief financial officer, would be most likely to replace Mr. Löscher, but a company spokesman said on Sunday that he could not confirm the reports. In a statement Saturday, Siemens, based in Munich, said its supervisory board would name another member of the company’s executive board as chief executive, but it did not say who.

Siemens’s fortunes have consequences for the German economy as a whole because it is one of the country’s largest employers, with about 120,000 workers, and because it is something of a bellwether for the country’s industrial sector.

Along with automobiles, the German economy is based on the production of high-priced goods that are sold to governments and corporations. Siemens’s broad array of products includes gear for power generation, trains and other transportation equipment, and medical devices like X-ray scanners. Problems at Siemens are potentially a bad omen for the country.

On Thursday, Siemens shares plunged 6 percent after the company said it would not meet its profit goals for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. Siemens did not give a detailed explanation for the expected shortfall, attributing it to “lower market expectations.” But it appeared to reflect a combination of weaker-than-expected economic growth in crucial markets as well as management mistakes.

The profit warning fed concern that demand for German exports from China and other developing markets may no longer be strong enough to compensate for the weak European economy. Sales in the United States, where Siemens has 60,000 employees, also appear to be falling short of expectations despite the recovering growth in America.

Germany has weathered the euro zone crisis better than other countries because its machinery and engineering divisions have been able to tap developing markets, especially China. But recently the Chinese economy has been cooling, while Europe remains in recession.

Siemens had already reported a 7 percent decline in sales during the first three months of 2013, to 18 billion euros, or about $24 billion. On Thursday, the company is scheduled to announce earnings for the quarter that ended June 30.

Mr. Kaeser, reported as the likely replacement for Mr. Löscher, is a 56-year-old Siemens veteran credited with keeping the company on a steady course after the previous chief executive, Klaus Kleinfeld, resigned under pressure in 2007. Mr. Kleinfeld is now chief executive of the aluminum producer Alcoa.

Mr. Löscher, 55, was the latest in a line of Siemens chiefs who have tried to focus the sprawling company on its most profitable businesses and make it easier to manage. Under Mr. Löscher, Siemens spun off its Osram lighting unit, and this month it sold its half of a joint venture with Nokia that supplies equipment for mobile telecommunication networks.

Those moves raised money and simplified the company but were not enough to compensate for other problems, including delays in delivering high-speed ICE trains to Deutsche Bahn, the German railway.

Members of the supervisory board met informally on Saturday and will make the management changes formal at a regular meeting scheduled for Wednesday.