Bloomberg last night published portions of a May 4th memo from HP CEO Leo Apotheker to top execs in which he warned that the company was facing “another tough quarter” and urged all groups to “watch every penny and minimize all hiring.”
As a result, HP reported second quarter 2011 results a day early.
“Hewlett-Packard Co. warned of lower-than-expected results in its current quarter and again reduced its 2011 outlook as the tech company struggles with soft computer sales and faces further investment in its services business,” Ian Sherr reports for Dow Jones Newswires. “Tuesday, H-P blamed its lowered outlook on falling consumer PC sales, ‘near-term impact’ from the devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan in March, and lower operating profits in its services unit… It called its consumer performance ‘uneven,’ with continued softness in consumer PCs.”
Sherr reports, “Shares slipped 4.8% to $37.90 premarket as H-P now sees full-year earnings before items of at least $5 a share on revenue between $129 billion and $130 billion, compared with February estimates for earnings of $5.20 to $5.28 a share and $130 billion to $131.5 billion in revenue.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple’s Mac has outgrown the Windows PC market for 20 consecutive quarters and counting.