RIVERWOODS, Ill. – Discover Financial Services, the parent of Pulse EFT, reported a fourth quarter loss of $84.1 million yesterday, after taking a $391 million charge related to its struggling card business in Great Britain. The company warned earlier this month that it would be hit by a big impairment charge because of Goldfish, its troubled Visa and MasterCard business in the United Kingdom, where the consumer credit environment became shaky well before the U.S. housing slump.
The news pushed shares in the newly public company down to $15.50, a 48% drop since July IPO. That’s when Discover was spun off from Morgan Stanley, the venerable investment bank which reported a fourth quarter loss Wednesday of $3.5 billion, its first quarterly loss ever.
Discover’s fourth quarter loss pushed fiscal year earnings down to $561 million, about half the $1.08 billion earned in fiscal 2006.
