For the quarter ended July 31, HP reported earnings of $73 million, or 3 cents per share, on revenue of $20.8 billion. While revenue was up 10% from the $18.9 billion reported in the same period one year ago, the third-quarter earnings represented a substantial drop from the earnings of $586 million, or 19 cents per share, reported for last year's third quarter.
"The objective is to build a strong and healthy HP for the long term while delivering on our short-term commitments at the same time," Hurd said during a conference call Tuesday.
"We have succeeded in doing two difficult things at once: We stayed focused on delivering a strong quarterly performance, and we launched a significant restructuring effort," he said. The quarterly results were the first since Hurd revealed in July HP's intention to reduce its workforce by 14,500 workers, or about 10%.
HP has been able to deliver strong cash flow, see "excellent" performance from its personal systems group, and achieve "steady progress" in its imaging and printing group, Hurd said. The personal-systems group revenue grew by 8% year over year to $6.4 billion, led by 21% growth in notebook computer sales. Overall, he described growth in the PC industry as "steady and stable."
The imaging and printing group had quarterly revenue of $5.9 billion, up 5% year over year. The enterprise storage and servers unit had revenue of $4.0 billion, up 20%. Services revenue was $3.8 billion, up 10%. Software revenue was $249 million, up 11%. And financial services had revenue of $489 million, which was flat.
Hurd said HP decided to exit the iPod business last year because it was an area "we weren't adding a lot of value. ... We couldn't see a grander road." He said there were no other businesses that had been identified to either spin-off or discontinue.