Close
  • Latest News
  • Cybersecurity
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Mobile
  • Networking
  • Storage
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Menu
Search
  • Latest News
  • Cybersecurity
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Mobile
  • Networking
  • Storage
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home IT Management
    • IT Management
    • Networking
    • PC Hardware

    HP CEO Mark Hurd Sees ‘Challenging’ PC Market in 2009

    By
    Scott Ferguson
    -
    November 24, 2008
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin

      Despite posting an upbeat fourth-quarter financial report, Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd warned that company will face a “challenging” PC market in 2009, leaving the door open for more cost cutting in the coming year.

      HP, the world’s largest PC vendor, officially posted its fourth-quarter financial results Nov. 24. The company had already released preliminary numbers Nov. 18, which took much of the drama out of the release of the official numbers.

      In the fourth quarter, HP reported that its revenue for the fourth financial quarter stood at $33.6 billion, an increase of 19 percent from a year ago. HP also reported that the company is expecting earnings of 84 cents a share this quarter, or $1.03 per share when those numbers are adjusted. HP saw earnings of 86 cents a share a year ago. However, HP did report that its net earnings dropped 2 percent year over year from $2.2 billion in 2007 to $2.1 billion this quarter.

      While HP’s numbers were a silver lining in the IT market that saw Advanced Micro Devices and Sun Microsystems announce job cuts in the last month, Hurd warned that the company will face a challenging global market in 2009, especially when it comes to PCs.

      “We’re guiding conservatively, or I should say conservatively down from where we have been,” said Hurd when asked about the PC market in 2009. “We are trying to be cautious, and we are trying to be thoughtful in the revenue [forecast] we are giving. We think it will be a challenging environment, and we are planning as such.”

      Hurd’s concerns about the 2009 PC market reflected a similar outlook that CEO Michael Dell offered just a week before, when his company announced its latest financial results. Michael Dell said his company, the world’s second-largest maker of desktops and notebooks, was taking a “conservative” approach to the PC market in the next year.

      Even with those warnings, HP showed that its ability to sell PCs both in the United States and overseas helped the company’s bottom line in an unstable financial environment. During its financial fourth quarter, HP’s PC division watched its revenue increase 10 percent to $11.2 billion and shipments increased 19 percent.

      While HP’s notebook revenue increased 21 percent, its desktop revenue fell 2 percent. HP also managed to grow its commercial client revenue by 7 percent despite the financial crisis and concerns that enterprises are starting to cut hardware spending.

      A lot of HP’s success in the PC market, both in terms of revenue and shipments, comes from overseas sales. In the fourth quarter, HP reported that 68 percent of its revenue comes from outside the United States.

      In his comments to reporters, Hurd noted that to continue growing HP’s share of the PC and other IT markets, he will cut some $1 billion in expenses from the company’s budget in the coming year. While Hurd did not offer specifics, HP is expected to cut back on discretionary spending, such as travel, and cut back on hiring. HP already announced that it will shut down for an extra week during the 2008 holiday season.

      “There is never a time when we are not looking hard at our costs,” said Hurd.

      While HP is best known as a company that specializes in desktops, notebooks, printing and other hardware, Hurd did use the quarterly earnings result to emphasize the company’s push into IT services, especially after the EDS acquisition. In its fourth-quarter results, HP reported that revenue from its IT services division increased 99 percent to $8.6 billion. That number included $3.9 billion in revenue from EDS.

      Avatar
      Scott Ferguson

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Android

      Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro: Durability for Tough...

      Chris Preimesberger - December 5, 2020 0
      Have you ever dropped your phone, winced and felt the pain as it hit the sidewalk? Either the screen splintered like a windshield being...
      Read more
      Cloud

      Why Data Security Will Face Even Harsher...

      Chris Preimesberger - December 1, 2020 0
      Who would know more about details of the hacking process than an actual former career hacker? And who wants to understand all they can...
      Read more
      Cybersecurity

      How Veritas Is Shining a Light Into...

      eWEEK EDITORS - September 25, 2020 0
      Protecting data has always been one of the most important tasks in all of IT, yet as more companies become data companies at the...
      Read more
      Big Data and Analytics

      How NVIDIA A100 Station Brings Data Center...

      Zeus Kerravala - November 18, 2020 0
      There’s little debate that graphics processor unit manufacturer NVIDIA is the de facto standard when it comes to providing silicon to power machine learning...
      Read more
      Apple

      Why iPhone 12 Pro Makes Sense for...

      Wayne Rash - November 26, 2020 0
      If you’ve been watching the Apple commercials for the past three weeks, you already know what the company thinks will happen if you buy...
      Read more
      eWeek


      Contact Us | About | Sitemap

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      Terms of Service | Privacy Notice | Advertise | California - Do Not Sell My Information

      © 2021 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×