On the heels of the announcement that it is buying networking
equipment vendor 3Com, Hewlett-Packard is releasing preliminary fiscal
fourth-quarter financial numbers that show revenues up 12 percent over the
previous quarter.
HP is scheduled to release final quarterly figures Nov. 23, but released the
preliminary numbers Nov. 11 to open communications with investors after
announcing that it is buying 3Com for $2.7 billion.
"Solid execution drove exceptional performance for HP this quarter,
fueled by significant growth in China,"
HP Chairman and CEO Mark Hurd said in a
statement. "We are delivering on our strategy and are well positioned
going into 2010."
According to HP, the company generated $30.8 billion in revenue, which was a
significant jump over third-quarter figures but an 8 percent drop over the same
period last year.
Looking forward, HP is projecting fiscal first-quarter 2010 revenues of
$29.6 billion to $29.9 billion, and full fiscal year revenue of $118 billion to
$119 billion, a jump from previous estimates of $117 billion to $118 billion.
Those numbers don’t include any impact from the 3Com acquisition, which has
been approved by the boards of directors of both companies and which officials
expect to close in the first half of 2010.
Industry analysts have said that HP’s deal for 3Com will fill a number of
holes in its ProCurve networking portfolio—it will give HP solid core
networking switch products, for example—and will enable the company to compete
better against Cisco Systems.
Such capabilities also will be key as HP competes with Cisco, Dell and
others in developing converged data center solutions, which tightly integrate
compute, storage, networking and management software.
The deal also will give HP greater unified communications products and a
larger presence in China,
where 3Com is headquartered.
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