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UPDATED 01:39 EDT / AUGUST 21 2015

NEWS

HP revenues slump in final earnings call before splitting up

Hewlett-Packard Co. announced profits that fell short of estimates in its fiscal third quarter earnings report, the last the company will make before it splits into two. CEO Meg Whitman said on Thursday that she “was pleased” with the company’s performance during the quarter, even though nearly every reporting segment was down annually.

HP said that revenues for the quarter ending July 31 fell by 8 percent to $25.3 billion, while profits slipped by 13 percent to $854 million. It marks the sixteenth successive quarter that HP has seen its revenues decline, as the company struggles to manage two separate shifts – that of on-premise IT equipment to the cloud, and PCs to mobile devices.

Following the news, HP’s shares fell by more than 2 percent in after hours trading.

Revenues fell across the board, with nearly every business unit feeling the crunch. PC sales declined by 13 percent from a year ago to $7.5 billion, while unit sales fell by 11 percent. HP’s printing business fared little better, with revenues declining by 9 percent to $5.1 billion. HP said its total revenues from combined PC and printer-related sales (the business units that will become HP Inc.) were $12.6 billion, a decline of 11.5 percent from last year. Elsewhere, HP’s Enterprise Services unit saw revenues fall by 11 percent to $5 billion, while software sales totalled $900 million, a 6 percent slump. As a result, HP exited the quarter with a combined $17.4 billion in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments.

HP was quick to point the finger of blame at currency movements, saying that while its sales fell by 8 percent overall, after adjusting for the effects of other currencies, that figure would have been just two percent.

The only bright spot for the quarter was HP’s enterprise products division, which reported some growth. That group’s revenue climbed by two percent from a year ago, with x86 server and networking gear sales both showing signs of life.

“The enterprise group performed very well in Q3,” said CEO Meg Whitman in a conference call. “I don’t think the strategy we’ve put in place will change much, after we separate.”

HP’s split is all set to take place on November 1, though Whitman said the company is already operating as if it were two separate entities.

“On Aug 1 we successfully split the processes and IT systems of the company,” Whitman said, adding that although the process was complex everything went smoothly.

Image credit: Hewlett-Packard Company

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