Hewlett-Packard, until recently the world’s largest technology company in terms of revenue, released tepid quarterly results on Thursday. They showed a once industry-leading computer maker continuing to limp along in a world increasingly defined by smartphones and cloud computing.
Over all, the company reported revenue of $27.3 billion, down slightly from a year earlier, though net earnings of $1.3 billion were up from $1.1 billion. The earnings met the expectations of analysts, who appeared to anticipate a spotty performance from the company, which also said it would be cutting thousands of jobs in the near term.
Meg Whitman, the company’s chief executive, took to CNBC on Friday morning to discuss the company’s prospects, noting how it needs to be leaner and more efficient in light of increasing competition from industry stalwarts and an increasing array of upstarts.
Meg Whitman’s New World Order
Meg Whitman, Hewlett-Packard’s chief executive, said in an interview on CNBC that the company needs to build productivity into its DNA.
Publish Date May 23, 2014.Revenue was lower in three of HP’s product groups, including printing, business hardware and business services. Only PCs, which includes laptops, had higher revenue compared with a year earlier.
Sales of personal computers, its largest area of business, have been hurt in recent years by competition from tablets and smartphones. The PCs people do buy are replaced less often. Instead of buying the company’s computer servers and data storage, businesses increasingly rent computing via large cloud systems.
HP’s Chief: ‘PC Market in Slow Decline’
Meg Whitman noted in an interview on CNBC that the growth in Hewlett-Packard’s PC business as a sign that the industry isn’t dead — yet.
Publish Date May 23, 2014.For the company to recover significantly, however, HP must create businesses in tune with the times. To achieve that, Ms. Whitman said several times how “efficient” the company needed to become. Part of that will come at the expense of the 11,000 to 16,000 employees who will lose their jobs, in addition to the 34,000 positions it already said would cut.
Whitman on HP Layoffs
Meg Whitman, in an interview on CNBC, described layoffs at Hewlett-Packard in terms of making the company more efficient.
Publish Date May 23, 2014.Ms. Whitman has said that it would take a long time to get the company on the right course. Thursday’s results underlined that its recovery was still in the distance.