HP reported its third quarter earnings today, trumping most expected results from Wall Street with positive numbers, yet also slashed projections for the final 2011 year revenue announcements.
Cutting its full fiscal-year revenue forecast down to a range of $127.2 to $127.6 billion from $129 to $130 billion, HP’s CEO Leo Apotheker stated in the earnings conference call that this cut does not resonate well with him as he is aware that investors also do not like to be placed in such a precarious position with future revenue so uncertain.
He noted that HP’s “enterprise service needs to be reshaped” and that the company needs to face the “technical issues” it has encountered because of the lagging economy as well as the recent natural disasters in Japan.
But HP’s earnings rolled in positively at 93 cents a share, up from 75 cents per share from the same quarter in 2010. Net revenue rolled in at $31.19 billion, up from $30.73 billion last year. Analysts had projected less successful revenue for the company. HP expects revenue for the current quarter to roll in at about $32.1 to $32.5 billion.
Apotheker remarked that the personal computing and device arena has changed and grown increasingly competitive while being affected by global economic concerns. He spoke about HP’s groundbreaking acquisition of Autonomy, the U.K.’s largest software company, and how the merger will benefit both companies. The purchase will reportedly cost HP $10 billion.
Continuing to explain that HP is looking towards expanding its software and services in the cloud arena post-haste, Apotheker also discussed the company’s discontinuing of its TouchPad product in addition to its webOS phones. The company’s webOS products were not received as well by consumers as HP had predicted, and Apotheker stated, “We are exploring options of how best to progress with the platform.”
The earnings call was left on an uncertain note, as HP’s executives made quite clear the fact that the direction of its recent webOS software is yet unknown.
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Juliana Kenny graduated from the University of Connecticut with a double degree in English and French. After managing a small company for two years, she joined TMC as a Web Editor for TechZone360. Juliana currently focuses on the call center and CRM industries, but she also writes about cloud telephony and network gear including softswitches.
Edited by Juliana Kenny
