McDeficit For McDonald's

McDonald's Corp. announced the first quarterly net loss in its history Thursday, a $343.8 million deficit for the last three months of 2002 reflecting an assortment of charges and write-offs aimed at helping it pull out of an unprecedented slump.

The burger giant also confirmed it is cutting back further on its rapid expansion pace. While outlining plans to open another 850 traditional McDonald's restaurants and 530 of its other brand restaurants in 2003, it said it will close a total of 600 restaurants this year — 400 of them traditional McDonald's.

The company took a whopping $810 million in charges for the fourth quarter, including $267 million for restructuring items, $359 million for restaurant closings and asset impairments and $184 million on technology write-offs.

The net loss amounted to 27 cents a share, versus a profit of $271.9 million, or 21 cents a share, a year earlier.

Excluding the charges, its operating earnings of 25 cents a share matched the consensus of analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call.

Revenues were $3.9 billion, up 3 percent from $3.77 billion.

McDonald's, which was founded in 1955 and has been publicly traded since 1965, has been struggling due to growing consumer weariness with fast food, a crowded restaurant market and its own problems with speed and service. It replaced Jack Greenberg with Jim Cantalupo as CEO last month after its stock fell to 7-year lows.