News Corp. had no big news to report on Wednesday morning, as Rupert Murdoch’s media conglomerate posted earnings that were on par with analysts’ estimates.

The world’s third-largest media company, after Time Warner and the Walt Disney Co., said its net income increased to $871 million, or 27 cents a share, in the fiscal third quarter, from $820 million, or 26 cents, in the same period a year earlier. Sales rose 21 percent to $7.53 billion.

While earnings met most expectations, revenue exceeded the forecast of $6.81 billion, Reuters reports.

News Corp. made headlines this quarter with an unsolicited bid for Dow Jones & Co. Murdoch’s $60-per-share offer represents a 67 percent premium over Dow Jones’ market value and would give the mogul control of the nation's top business newspaper, the Wall Street Journal.

Though the Journal suffers as much as other newspapers from competition on the internet, it would complement the business-news cable channel News Corp. plans to launch. So would Dow Jones' other businesses, including Barron’s, Marketwatch.com, and Dow Jones Newswires.

Outstanding performance in filmed entertainment and a big boost in revenue at Fox News headlined this quarter’s earnings report.

The studio division’s profit rose 82 percent to $410 million, anchored by $571 million in worldwide box office receipts from the hit movie Night at the Museum.

Meanwhile News Corp.'s cable TV networks, led by Fox News, beat analysts’ estimates with a 34 percent rise in profit, to $282 million.

The only News Corp. division that lagged for the quarter was Fox television networks. The lackluster performance of its new My Network TV mini-network drove profit down 4.5 percent to $273 million, despite the continuing success of
American Idol.

News Corp.’s Class A shares fell 34 cents to $21.41 in morning trading on Wednesday.