Walt Disney profits surge on magical DVD sales

WALT DISNEY, the second-largest US media company, said first-quarter profit more than doubled on asset sales and income from last year’s two biggest-selling DVD releases, Pirates of the Caribbean and Cars.

Net income increased to $1.7 billion (€1.3bn), or 79 cents a share, from $734 million, or 35 cents, a year ago, Burbank, California-based Disney said yesterday in a statement.

Sales climbed 9.8% to $9.73bn. Profit excluding one-time items was 50 cents, beating the 40-cent average estimate of 16 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.