• Bloomberg, Thursday, February 12, 2009 10:45 AM

Coca-Cola says fourth-quarter profit fell after its largest distributor, Coca-Cola Enterprises, wrote down the value of its North American business. Its net income dropped to $995 million, or 43 cents a share, from $1.21 billion, or 52 cents, a year earlier. But excluding the write down, it earned 64 cents a share, beating analysts' estimates.

CEO Muhtar Kent is spearheading a cost-cutting initiative that aims to save the company as much as $500 million a year by the end of 2011, but CMO Joe Tripodi said Jan. 21 that the company will raise marketing spending across all of its brands, Duane D. Stanford reports, while declining to provide financial details.

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