“Hewlett-Packard Co’s earnings fell nearly 44 percent and the world’s No. 1 computer maker forecast a second-quarter profit below Wall Street estimates as it struggles with weak sales of PCs and printers,” Poornima Gupta reports for Reuters.
“Chief Executive Meg Whitman, a veteran Silicon Valley executive who took the top job last September after the firing of Leo Apotheker, has been trying to turn around HP’s sprawling businesses. On Wednesday, she pleaded for a little patience,” Gupta reports. “‘If you look at business history and you look at companies which have gone through the kind of turnaround that we’re leading HP through right now, these things are not quick,’ she said, adding it could anywhere from two to five years.”
Gupta reports, “Fiscal first-quarter revenue fell 7 percent to $30 billion, slightly below Wall Street’s consensus estimate. Sales from the personal systems group, encompassing PCs, declined 15 percent, which executives blamed partly on a persistent shortage of hard drives globally – the result of flooding last year in Thailand.”
MacDailyNews Take: Meanwhile, Apple posted record Mac sales during the same quarter; the 23rd consecutive quarter in which the Mac outgrew the Windows PC market. That’s six years. But, keep blaming floods.
Gupta reports, “On Wednesday, HP reported net income of $1.47 billion for the fiscal first quarter, or 73 cents a share, down from $2.6 billion, or $1.17 a share, a year earlier.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Just $1.47 billion profit on $30 billion in revenue? That’s a heck of a lot of work for not very much. Woeful, in fact. Seriously, why bother – unless your goal is to doom as many people as possible to inferior personal computing?
Related articles:
Dell shares fall on earnings miss, weaker than expected outlook – February 21, 2012
Apple Mac, Windows PC killer – January 12, 2012
U.S. Windows PC shipments drop 6% in holiday quarter as Apple Macs surge 21% – January 11, 2012
J.P. Morgan: Apple’s MacBook Air to dominate ultrabook market – December 12, 2011
Why Apple will be the world’s #1 personal computer maker in 2012 – December 5, 2011
Apple on track to overtake HP, become leading global PC vendor – November 21, 2011
Gartner: Apple Mac share up 20% in Europe YOY as PC shipments plunge 11.4% – November 14, 2011
Surging iPad shipments propel Apple to #1 in worldwide mobile computer market share – February 16, 2011
Canalys unafraid to count iPad, puts Apple third in worldwide PC market share – January 26, 2011
DisplaySearch not afraid to count iPad: Apple #1 mobile PC maker in North America, #3 in world – December 7, 2010
