Time Warner joins rebound from crisis

Some of the biggest US media companies are rebounding from a crisis that many expected to finish them off with a spate of dividend increases, forecast upgrades and promises to boost shareholder returns.

Having whispered of "cautious optimism" since September, executives at News Corp, Time Warner and Comcast supplied evidence this week of confidence that a recovery from the worst economic period since the Great Depression would last. In a surprise to investors who have grown weary amid years of moguls ploughing profits into risky mergers and acquisitions, media chiefs vowed to increase returns to shareholders in the form of larger stock repurchases and dividends. Time Warner, unshackled from the loss-making AOL, which analysts had called the "long national nightmare", reported a return to profits from a period a year ago when it was saddled with writedowns on its publishing, Internet and cable divisions. It also expected 2010 profit per share to rise in the mid-teens range.