Blaming seasonal slowness and its own overly aggressive personal computer prices, Hewlett-Packard has reported third quarter earnings and sales that failed to meet Wall Street's expectations.
The Palo Alto-based HP, which employs almost 4,000 staff in Ireland, said its problems were related to execution and not the $19 billion merger with Compaq that closed in May 2002.
Chief executive Carly Fiorina predicted that all five of HP's business units would return to profitability this quarter.
"The third quarter is always tough, but we still should have done better," she said Tuesday. "Nevertheless, we are confident in our strategy and the actions we're taking. We expect to deliver a strong fourth quarter with every one of our businesses profitable."
In extended-session trading, shares of HP lost $2.23, or more than 10 percent, to $19.88. Before its results were announced, they closed 2 cents lower, to $22.11 in yesterday's trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
For the period ending July 31st, HP earned $297 million, or 10 cents per share, compared with a loss of $2.03 billion, or 67 cents per share, in the same period last year.
Excluding special items, HP earned $700 million, or 23 cents per share. That compares with a profit of $420 million, or 14 cents per share, in the third-quarter of fiscal 2002.
Third-quarter revenue was $17.35 billion, up 4.9 percent from $16.54 billion posted in the same period last year.
Analysts were expecting HP to earn 26 cents per share on revenue of $17.46 billion, according to a survey by Thomson First Call.
The company said it was continuing to cut costs and jobs, though it continues to add positions in lucrative areas such as its imaging and printing business.