HP posts huge loss of $8.9 bn, to cut 4000 jobs

SAN FRANCISCO, USA: Hewlett-Packard Co swung to an $8.9 billion quarterly loss as personal computer sales shrank again and it swallowed a huge write-down linked to its $13.9 billion purchase of Electronic Data Systems Corp.

The company also on Wednesday reduced its full-year earnings outlook slightly to the low end of its previous range, responding to a faltering PC market as well as touch economic conditions in Europe and also China, where growth too is slowing. Its shares slid more than 4 percent in late trading.

The No.1 personal computer maker, which employs more than 300,000 people globally, is undergoing a multi-year restructuring aimed at focusing the sprawling corporation on enterprise services, in the mold of IBM. The plan calls for reducing its employee base by 8 per cent.

HP will have gone through about half of its targeted job reductions by the end of the fiscal year, HP's Chief Financial Officer Cathie Lesjak said in an interview. It cut 4,000 jobs in fiscal third quarter and will likely have shorn 11,500 jobs by end of fiscal 2012, she said.

"HP is definitely showing progress in terms of turning around the company," said Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu. "One of the clear signs is a better predictability of earnings."

The company was plagued by poor forecasting during former Chief Executive Leo Apotheker's brief tenure.

CEO Meg Whitman has urged investors to be patient as she works to jumpstart revenue and cut costs.

"We are still in the early stage of the turnaround. There will be challenges ahead that could create some variability in performance," said Whitman, who replaced the unpopular Apotheker at the helm in September. "But I'm confident in our ability to work through them and get to where we want to be."

The world's largest PC maker posted a 5 per cent slide in net revenue in its fiscal third quarter to $29.7 billion, slightly below the average Wall Street estimate of $30.1 billion as compiled by Thomson Reuters.

It took a charge of $10.8 billion, mostly related to the writedown of its EDS services business, which it had announced earlier this month.

HP, which like smaller rival Dell Inc is struggling to offset faltering PC sales with services revenue, posted a net loss of $4.49 a share in its fiscal third quarter that ended July 31, versus a profit $1.9 billion, or 93 cents a share, a year earlier.

Both HP and Dell are struggling to defend their PC market share from Asian rivals such as Lenovo and Acer.

Excluding items such as the writedown, it earned $1 a share, outstripping Wall Street's target of 98 cents. The stock fell to $18.35 in after-hours trade on Wednesday, down 4.4 per cent from its $19.20 close in regular trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

Wall Street has so far adopted a wait-and-see approach to Whitman's restructuring plan but is concerned with the continued decline in revenue. HP has lost close to a quarter of its market value in 2012. Its shares are down about 15 per cent from when Whitman was appointed to the helm in September of last year.