However, much of this is due to a non-cash write-off relating to depreciation and amortisation in investments such as Now TV and advertising service Adsmart.
China Telecom added 6 Hong Kong cents (1 cent), or 1.9%, to 3.19 Hong Kong dollars (41 cents), following its reporting of a sharp drop in annual profits, which was expected, owing to a write-off relating to its wireless unit.
Its 2000 loss, which included $343 million in write-offs related to bad acquisitions and investments, totaled $1.4 billion.
Starbucks said that it could take up to $348 million in charges and write-offs related to the closings, including costs tied to lease terminations and severance payments.
The company, already struggling with the aftermath of some bad investments in overseas businesses, took numerous write-offs related to training and factory retooling.
Yet in 2009, GE took massive write-offs related to GE Capital and saw its market capitalization fall as low as $75 billion.
Wang Jianzhou, chairman of China Unicom, said the earnings decline was mainly a result of a write-off related to its paging division.
That includes the acquisition of the optical electronics business from Agere Systems Inc. but excludes charges and write-offs related to the purchase.
In the previous first quarter, write-offs related to the energy crisis and other charges at the company's troubled utility, the Pacific Gas and Electric Company, had pulled down the bottom line.
But he termed the write-off related to the loans conservative because it counted nearly all the unsecured loans as losses.
Furthermore, I.B.M. will take one-time write-offs related to its $200 million acquisition of Software Artistry, a maker of help-desk software, and will have unusual expenses related to its sponsorship of the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan.
