the answer to why i posted this to your sun.com thread is embedded in this article. the first one to discover it will move to the head of the thread.
H-P Revenue May Miss Estimates,
Fiorina Says in Conference Call
By CHRISTOPHER GRIMES
Dow Jones Newswires
PALO ALTO, Calif. -- Hewlett-Packard Co.'s fiscal fourth-quarter revenue could fall short of Wall Street expectations, Chief Executive Officer Carly Fiorina said, blaming both a struggling computer-server line and disruptions due to the earthquake in Taiwan.
In a conference call with Wall Street analysts Friday morning, Ms. Fiorina said two businesses have been doing well: printers and PCs. But she said sales of the recently introduced N-Class computer servers -- which the company had hoped would dent Sun Microsystems Inc.'s strong position in the Unix market -- have been disappointing.
Shares of H-P fell Friday, dropping $3.375 to $87.375 on the New York Stock Exchange.
Ms. Fiorina said revenue in the quarter, which ends in October, would probably come in at the "low end" of the expected 10% to 13% range that Wall Street had been expecting. But cost cuts could keep earnings per share in line with projections of about 99 cents. The company will report fourth-quarter results Nov. 17.
The Taiwan earthquake could cause "disruptions" in the flow of components used in PCs, particularly DRAM chips, she said. But the "situation is still fluid," she said, and it's too early to tell the exact impact the quake will have on results.
Company Profile: Hewlett-Packard
Ms. Fiorina blamed the culture of the Unix sales force in North America for the product's poor performance. She said the problem is "not new" and that "poor performers have been removed." Further, the company is changing the pay-incentive program for that sales force.
Since she was tapped in July to succeed Lewis Platt, Ms. Fiorina has stayed out of the limelight so she can learn the company, H-P has said. The former Lucent Technologies Inc. executive is expected to officially unveil her strategy for H-P at the company's fall analyst meeting Dec. 1 in San Francisco.
But because investors have hacked as much as $9 off H-P shares in the last eight trading days, Ms. Fiorina said she decided to hold a call to give an update on the company's business.
She said in the conference call that H-P is using the weakness of the stock to buy its own shares in its most "aggressive buyback" plan in 12 years. |
