Earnings for Northrop Grumman Show Loss

(MoneyWatch)  As we wrote previously Northrop Grumman had warned they would probably take a loss for the last quarter due to write downs on previous acquisitions. The Los Angeles Times reports that the company had a loss for the quarter. This is the first quarterly loss in over seven years. The company did have increased sales to move into second place behind Lockheed Martin and ahead of Boeing in revenue. Without the write down related to Litton Industries Inc. and TRW Inc. the company would have posted a profit of over half-a-billion dollars.