HP posts big net profit for most recent quarter

Hewlett-Packard Company announced a quarterly net profit significantly higher than anticipated by even the experts. Lehman Brothers issued a statement that "...this was a quarter in which HP told people to expect profits to potentially reach fifty percent and instead they rose seventy percent." HP also announced that it was nearly finished combining the sales force of Compaq (which HP acquired this year) with HP's existing sales force, and that the "new combined" HP cost cutting and job elimination programs are well underway. For the three months ending on October 31st, the company earned $390 million on revenue of $18 billion, compared to revenue for the same period one year ago of a loss of $505 million, or 17 cents per share, on revenue of $18.2 billion. Unfortunately, this profit bottom line was largely obtained by employee layoffs: the new HP eliminated 12,500 jobs by October 31st, and will eliminate another 17,900 jobs by the end of its fiscal 2003.