But of the $43 billion in C.D.O.'s it had on its books, it wrote off only about $95 million, according to a person briefed on the situation.
Computing giant Microsoft has made the first quarterly loss in its history after it wrote off some of the value of its online advertising business.
Dow Jones & Company, the publisher of The Wall Street Journal, posted a net loss for the fourth quarter as it wrote off its remaining investment in the financially struggling Bridge Information Systems, the company said yesterday.
The Co-op, the UK's largest mutual, is back in the black and reported pre-tax profits of £72 million for the year to 6 January, 2018, compared to a £132 million loss last year when it wrote off its stake in the troubled Co-op Bank.
Thus in 2002 BHP Billiton transferred its 52% stake to a sustainable development fund intended to benefit Papua New Guineans; it wrote off its entire $416 million investment.
Last week, Canal Plus disclosed that it wrote off its stake in Carolco with a provision of about $22 million.
JDS also said it was adding $76 million to the $270 million it wrote off in its fourth quarter to reflect the declining value of unsold products in its inventories, a move that suggests that the downturn in demand for its products has worsened since July.
An indicator of the dangers was provided by Italian bank Unicredit in its annual results earlier this week, when it wrote off €9.6bn and ringfenced more than €40bn in its accounts, much of it loans in eastern Europe.
When Citi seized EMI, it wrote off 65 percent of its loan, leaving EMI with a far more manageable $1.9 billion of outstanding debt.
While Bristol-Myers said it wrote off $367 million of its investment in ImClone in the third quarter, the company emphasized yesterday that it was still optimistic about the drug's prospects.
The big Hong Kong property developer Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd. said first-half profit fell 40percentt after it wrote off losses at its information-technology unit and sold fewer apartments.
