13 August 2004 Computer giant Hewlett-Packard has removed three of its top executives after announcing disappointing quarterly results this week.

For its fiscal third quarter to the end of July, HP’s net income weighed in at $586 million, up from $297 million a year ago but below analysts’ expectations. The company’s revenue grew by 9% from $17.35 billion in the same period last year to $18.89 billion.

HP CEO Carly Fiorina attributed the company’s disappointing results to a poor performance in the enterprise servers and storage division, where revenue was 5% down from last year. Fiorina promised “immediate management changes” in this division.

When the results were released, Fiorina sent out an internal memo announcing that the company will replace Peter Blackmore, head of enterprise sales; Kasper Rorsted, head of the customer solutions group in EMEA, responsible for direct sales to enterprises and the public sector; and Jim Milton, senior vice president and managing director of sales in the Americas. All three executives who were ousted originally came from Compaq.

Meanwhile, one of HP’s rivals, IBM, announced this week that it plans to hire 19,000 workers globally by the end of 2004.

“It is safe to assume that IBM timed the hiring announcement to rub a bit of acid in HP’s wounds,” an IBM spokesperson told Reuters. IBM now expects to have 330,000 workers on its payroll by the end of the year – its highest total since 1991 when it employed 344,000 staff.