HP made $1.6bn profit in the three months to July 31 this year,
compared to $2bn in the same period last year.
The results beat expectations, with new chief executive Mark
Hurd joining the company one month before the end of the quarter.
The figures showed a slight fall from $1.7bn in the previous
quarter.
The company has spent the year enforcing pay cuts and
redundancies. These
include
5% pay cuts and reductions to other benefits. Workers at HP
owned EDS in the US, which HP acquired last year,
have been particular hard hit.
The company announced in 2008 that it would cut
24,600 jobs of its worldwide, 320,000-strong workforce. Of
those, 9,300 came from the EMEA region.
Hurd told reporters and analysis on conference calls that he
would be looking to make small improvements to the company,
including addressing weaknesses in the storage business and driving
printing and imaging forward.
Imaging and printing was a weak area for the company - revenue
decline 20% to $5.7bn. Printer unit shipments fell 23% and
commercial hardware revenue fell 37%.
Hurd said, ""Business is stabilising, and we are confident that
HP will be an early beneficiary of an economic turnaround and will
continue to outperform when conditions improve."