Hewlett-Packard (HPQ)

[kennynah]

Hewlett-Packard To Report Q4 Results: Earnings Preview
11/23/2009 5:40 AM ET

(RTTNews) - Computer and printer maker Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ: News ) is scheduled to report fourth-quarter results after the market closes on Monday. On average, 30 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect the company to earn $1.13 per share for the quarter ended October 31 with estimates ranging between $1.09 and $1.14 per share. Revenues are estimated to be $30.36 billion. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

The Palo Alto, California-based company, the world's No. 1 PC maker, last week provided preliminary fourth quarter results saying it expects fourth quarter GAAP earnings of $0.99 per share and non-GAAP earnings of $1.14 per share. The company also said it expects to record fourth quarter revenue of $30.8 billion.

According to market research firm Gartner, Inc. (IT), worldwide PC shipments increased in the third quarter by 0.5% year-over-year to 80.9 million units. HP continued to lead the worldwide PC market with market share of 19.9%, followed by Acer with 15.4% market share and Dell Inc. (DELL) with 12.8% market share, Gartner said. However, Dell was the top PC vendor in the U.S. in the third quarter, with a market share of 26.2%.

In the first quarter of 2009, HP clinched the top spot in the U.S. PC market, which is the world's biggest, from Dell, which had held that position since 1999. Dell had lost the global PC lead to HP in 2006.

Yet, its printer and ink division may be a cause for worry for HP. Apart from generic competition and a reduction in corporate spending, currency fluctuations also may have a negative impact on the segment.

For the fourth quarter of fiscal 2008, HP's net earnings were $2.112 billion or $0.84 per share. Net revenue for the quarter was $33.603 billion.

On August 18, HP said its third quarter profit dropped 19% from last year amid sharp revenue drops in its PC, printer and server businesses. The company reported third-quarter GAAP net income of $1.64 billion or $0.67 per share, down from $2.03 billion or $0.80 per share reported for the year-ago quarter. HP, which is the world's largest technology company, said net revenue for the third quarter slipped 2% to $27.45 billion from $28.03 billion in the same quarter last year.

For the full year, analysts expect HP's earnings to range between $3.78 and $3.84 per share with a consensus of $3.82 per share. Full-year revenues are estimated to be $113.91 billion.

For fiscal 2008, the company's net earnings were $8.329 billion or $3.25 per share. Net revenue for the year was $118.364 billion.

[kennynah]

a friend who works in HP asked if he should exercise his options now...

what do you think?

[kennynah]

HPQ buys Palm for 1.2bil or $5.70 a share...

a mere 1.2bil.... for what was once a great company...


so sad.... i like palm products... still have my TREO650 pda phone...and still working...now HPQ is gonna mess up this LOB...

[iam802]

HPQ buys Palm for 1.2bil or $5.70 a share...

a mere 1.2bil.... for what was once a great company...


so sad.... i like palm products... still have my TREO650 pda phone...and still working...now HPQ is gonna mess up this LOB...

Just keep your fingers crossed.

Seems like HPQ is trying to go beyond the PC biz (where margin is really thin).

[kennynah]

the header was enough to crack me up....wahahahaha...

*************

Signs There Is No Intelligent Life At Hewlett-Packard
Posted: April 30, 2010 at 11:56 am
24/7 Wall St

Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) will regret the day it decided to buy Palm (NASDAQ: PALM), and it will be soon.

Palm was nearly worthless when HP made its offer, and that makes the $1.2 billion it offered for the company extraordinary.

There are a few reasons that HP will look at the “strategic move” as a mistake:

1. Palm’s brand has negative equity. Many companies have brands that are worth nearly as much as their market caps. Interbrand, the top brand research firm, would make that claim about Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), and Coca Cola (NYSE: KO). The Marlboro brand is worth tens of billions of dollars to the companies that sell the cigarette–Altria (NYSE: MO) and Philip Morris (NYSE: PM). Palm has gotten as much bad press as any company in the United States when the large banks are taken out of the equation. And it launched on the Sprint (NYSE; S) network, which is a distant third to rivals AT&T (NYSE: T) and Verizon Wireless. When Verizon began to offer the Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi early in April, customers could get two phones for the price of one. Palm is not a dying brand; it is a dead one.

2. The rise of Google’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) Android has made the handset market so crowded that the fortunes of each manufacturer are even worse than they were a year ago. Together, Nokia (NYSE: NOK), Samsung, and LG have well over half the global cellphone sales. Research-in-Motion became one of the five largest handset manufacturers by volume in the first quarter according to IDC. The iPhone is gaining market share rapidly, and Android-based handsets are the fastest growing part of the cellphone market. There is no room for Palm. That was true when Elevation made its investment in a turnaround in Palm in June 2007. The market has become much more crowded since then.

3. RIM is not in trouble. Some experts think that Palm will target RIM’s Blackberry. There could hardly be a more formidable competitor. RIM’s revenue for the fiscal year ended February 27, 2010 and was $14.95 billion, up 35% from $11.07 billion last year. Blackberry added approximately 4.9 million net new BlackBerry subscriber accounts in the most recent quarter. At the end of the quarter, the total BlackBerry subscriber account base was over 41 million. The Blackberry server system is still popular with corporate IT managers who want to keep their voice and data traffic out of the “cloud.”

4. Palm’s operating system, webOS, is one of many platforms that developers have to work on to get their applications onto handsets. The number of developer who will work with operating systems beyond Apple’s, Google’s, and the Symbian 3 standard that runs many Nokia phones is limited. As Ars Technica recently pointed out:

When the Pre launched in early June of 2009, the App Catalog had only about 30 apps. In July, there still weren’t any apps, nor were there in August. Eventually, there was a trickle of apps into the store, and by the time the “beta” tag came off at the end of last year there were just about 1,000 apps on offer. One thousand apps is peanuts compared to the iPhone, which has well over 100,000 apps on offer, or Android’s 10,000+ apps.

HP wants to be a significant force in the mobile operating system and handset business and hopes to do so by buying the weakest company in the industry

If wishes were horses all the beggars would ride.

[iam802]

The other way to look at is GS (who was tasked to help Palm find a buyer), just isn't as good when it comes to courting companies outside of US (<< speculation)

[kennynah]

but i thought PALM was really originally from 3COM which is a US company?

[iam802]

Maybe HP has a habit of acquiring everything 3COM related (<< HPQ acquired 3COM recently)

[kennynah]

i super suaku...

did you know that for some 2 years now, they have been selling this PC/TV integrated machines..ie, you can use your PC (where the CPU and ports are all built-in within the monitor panel) to watch TV and cable...

one such machine is HP TouchSmart 600... now retailing at S$1999 (read $2k).. screen size is 23"



i wonder if any forummers have tried such similar gadgets? i know Acer also offers such machines...

appreciate if you could comment on such products... thanks..

[iam802]

...
i wonder if any forummers have tried such similar gadgets? i know Acer also offers such machines...

appreciate if you could comment on such products... thanks..

Personally, I do not have a liking for these 'all-in-one' devices. If it breaks, everything goes.

But, there will always be a market for it.

eg. If you stay in studio apt., a dorm, or a kid who wants a TV-cum-desktop-and-do-everything in their rooms... scenario... and space is a challenge, this may be a good deal.

I think it boils down to the way you work or watch TV and what are the constraints (eg. space, budget, working habits)