Hewlett-Packard, the world’s largest IT company, revealed today that its revenue grew by just 3% in its most recent financial quarter.
By way of comparison, the average rate of revenue growth in the business IT industry – as measured by the Information Age Index – is currently just over 10%.
The company’s overall performance was blighted by a 5% drop in sales for its PC and laptop division, down to $9.4 billion. This drop reflected a 23% plunge in consumer device sales. The IT services division was sluggish, meanwhile, growing by just 2% to $9.0 billion.
HP’s saving grace was its server, storage and network division, where revenues rose 15% to $5.6 billion.
Profit growth was similarly underwhelming, with net earnings rising just 5% to $2.3 billion.
The results announcement came ahead of HP’s original schedule. This seems to have been in response to report this week from financial news agency Bloomberg, which quoted an allegedly leaked internal memo from CEO Leo Apotheker as saying the company faced "another tough quarter" in the next three months.
In the memo, Apotheker told HP executives to "watch every penny and minimise all hiring", Bloomberg reported, and that the company’s current level of staffing is “unaffordable given the pressures on our business".
