HP net profit falls 44%

Hewlett-Packard reported lower quarterly net profit and revenue as slumping personal computer sales dragged down earnings at the world's largest computer maker. The Palo Alto, California-based HP said net profit fell 44 percent during the first quarter of its fiscal year to $1.5 billion compared to the same quarter a year ago, while revenue was down seven percent to $30.0 billion. Earnings per share of 92 cents were slightly better than the 87 cents forecast by Wall Street analysts. "We delivered on our first quarter outlook and remained focused on the fundamentals to drive long-term sustainable returns," HP chief executive Meg Whitman said in a statement. "We are taking the necessary steps to improve execution, increase effectiveness and capitalize on emerging opportunities to reassert HP's technology leadership." Whitman, a former chief executive of eBay and unsuccessful candidate for governor of California, took the reins at HP in September after her predecessor, Leo Apotheker, was ousted after just 11 months on the job. The fiscal first-quarter was Whitman's first full quarter at the helm. In a conference call with financial analysts, she said HP "cannot maintain our current cost structure and layer on investments on top of that. "We've got to streamline our processes," she said. HP said revenue declined 15 percent at its PC unit during the quarter, with commercial sales down seven percent and consumer sales falling by 25 percent. The low-margin PC market has been flat amid an astronomical increase in powerful smartphones and the arrival of hot-selling tablet computers such as the iPad. Another US computer giant, Dell, reported Tuesday that its net profit fell 18 percent to $764 million last quarter while revenue was up two percent at $16 billion. HP said printer revenue was down seven percent in the quarter while servers and storage revenue fell 10 percent. Revenue from HP's services businesses grew one percent while software revenue was up 30 percent. HP shares were down 1.28 percent at $28.57 in after-hours trading.