HispanicBusiness

Corporate and unallocated shared expenses increased $15 million to $474 million for the year and increased $16 million to $140 million for the quarter. The increase for the year was driven by higher compensation related costs and charitable contributions, while the increase for the quarter was primarily due to higher charitable contributions.

The decrease in the effective tax rate for the year was due to the impact in the prior-year of the gain on the sale of Miramax and an increase in current year earnings from foreign operations subject to tax at rates lower than the federal statutory income tax rate. The book value of Miramax included non-deductible goodwill such that the taxable gain on the sale of Miramax resulted in tax expense that exceeded the book gain and an increase in the prior-year effective tax rate. The decreases from the impacts of the Miramax gain and foreign earnings were partially offset by the impact in the prior-year related to an impairment charge. The prior-year impairment charge related to assets that had tax basis in excess of the book value resulting in a tax benefit that exceeded the pre-tax impairment charge and a decrease in the prior-year effective tax rate.

Noncontrolling Interests

Net income attributable to noncontrolling interests for the year increased $40 million to $491 million and for the quarter decreased $18 million to $146 million. The increase for the year was due to improved operating results at ESPN and Hong Kong Disneyland Resort partially offset by lower operating results at Disneyland Paris including the impact of the DLP debt charge. The decrease for the quarter was driven by the impact of the DLP debt charge.

Cash Flow

Cash provided by operations for fiscal 2012 increased 14% or $972 million to $8.0 billion as compared to fiscal 2011. The increase in cash provided by operations was due to higher segment operating results and the timing of and improved receivable collections, partially offset by higher income tax payments, the payment of interest accrued in prior years on Disneyland Paris borrowings, and higher film production spending.

Capital Expenditures and Depreciation Expense

Capital expenditures increased from $3.6 billion to $3.8 billion driven by an increase at Corporate due to investments in facilities and information technology infrastructure and an increase at Parks and Resorts driven by resort expansion and new guest offerings at Walt Disney World Resort and construction costs at Shanghai Disney Resort, partially offset by reduced expenditures at Disneyland Resort.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

This earnings release presents earnings per share excluding the impact of certain items, net borrowings, free cash flow, and aggregate segment operating income, all of which are important financial measures for the Company but are not financial measures defined by GAAP.

These measures should be reviewed in conjunction with the relevant GAAP financial measures and are not presented as alternative measures of earnings per share, borrowings, cash flow or net income as determined in accordance with GAAP. Earnings per share excluding certain items, net borrowings, free cash flow, and aggregate segment operating income as we have calculated them may not be comparable to similarly titled measures reported by other companies.

Earnings per share excluding certain items -- The Company uses earnings per share excluding certain items to evaluate the performance of the Company's operations exclusive of certain items that impact the comparability of results from period to period. The Company believes that information about earnings per share exclusive of these impacts is useful to investors, particularly where the impact of the excluded items is significant in relation to reported earnings, because the measure allows for comparability between periods of the operating performance of the Company's business and allows investors to evaluate the impact of these items separately from the impact of the operations of the business.