Hewlett-Packard reported growth in earnings and revenue
for its third quarter, but still missed analyst forecasts,
prompting chairman and chief executive officer Carly Fiorina to
acknowledge that the company "should have done
better".
Revenue for the three months ending 31 July totalled $17.35bn,
up 5% from the same quarter last year but lower than the $17.5bn
that analysts had been expecting.
"Nevertheless, we are confident in our strategy and the actions
we're taking. We expect to deliver a strong fourth quarter with
every one of our businesses profitable," Fiorina said.
In its enterprise systems group, HP's mid-range and low-end Unix
server businesses performed poorly, as did its overall enterprise
group in Europe and Japan. Sales of its Superdome systems were
brighter, with revenue up 64% on the previous year, HP said.
Overall revenue from the enterprise group was $3.71bn, roughly
flat from a year earlier, while operating losses came in at $70m,
wider than its loss of $7m in the previous quarter but better than
its loss of $322m reported for the same quarter last year.
In its personal systems group, slow desktop sales in the US and
HP's own "overly aggressive" price discounts pushed results into
the red, although the division will return to profit by the end of
the year, HP said. Notebook sales were strong, up 27% year on year,
and that part of the business remained profitable, HP said.
The personal systems group's total revenue climbed 5% to
$4.97bn, while its operating loss was $56m, smaller than the $140m
loss it reported a year ago.
HP's services division performed well, with revenue from managed
services up 21% from a year earlier and revenue from customer
support growing 8%, helping the group return to double-digit
profitability during the quarter.
Revenue from the imaging and printing group grew 10% year on
year to $5.24bn, and profit returned to "more normal levels," HP
said.
James Niccolai writes for IDG News
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