Hewlett-Packard’s net earning for the first quarter of
2009 dropped 13% to $1.9bn from $2.1bn in the first quarter of
2008.
The company said revenue declined 3% in Europe, the Middle East
and Africa. HP said the company incurred costs related to its
acquisition of Electronic Data Systems (EDS), which has affected
the quarter's results.
HP expects its full-year earnings to decline by between 2% and
5%, depending on how the IT market changes during the downturn.
Sales of PCs in its Personal Systems Group (PSG) fell 19% to
$8.8bn, and the company said the number of PCs it shipped fell
4%.
HP's printer business appears to have been hit hard by the
recession, with shipments down by a third, and revenue down 19% to
$6bn.
The company’s software business declined with revenue falling 7%
to $878m. HP said its business technology optimisation business
also fell 4% while other software revenue was down 14%.
