Items tagged with Apotheker
HP has just announced that it will write off $8 billion dollars worth of goodwill due to poor performance of its Enterprise Services sector. In highly related news, the previous head of that segment, Jim Visentin, has quit to "pursue other opportunities." The move is seen as a readjustment in value of the properties HP acquired when it purchased Electronic Data Systems in 2008 for $13.2B. Do the math -- HP apparently thinks it overpaid, or is dubious of its long-term ability to compete with IBM. Visentin has been replaced by Mike Nefkens, with Jean-Jacques Charhon serving as chief operating officer for the embattled business unit. HP's $8B writeoff is an oddly high figure, given the performance...
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HP CEO Meg Whitman is expected to announce a major shift in its business structure today. Henceforth, the Personal Systems Group (PSG), which includes consumer PC sales, and the Image and Printing Group (IPG) will be combined into a single business structure. The move is a curious one, given that it combines what's typically been one of HP's star earners (IPG) with the low-margin / huge volume PC group. As part of the deal, longtime HP executive Vyomesh Joshi is expected to seek more time with his family; the combined unit will be headed by HP vice president Todd Bradley. When HP announced its FY 2011 results last month, Whitman's tough talk telegraphed a move like this. "We've got to streamline...
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The hard drive shortage, Oracle's assault on Itanium, and highly competitive scenarios in its ink-and-printer business combined to kneecap HP's earnings this last quarter. The company's net revenue fell seven percent, to $30 billion, while overall margins dropped to just 6.8 percent -- a decline of 3.7 percentage points. The steep decline in revenue was driven by a number of factors. Personal computing sales were down 15% year-on-year, imaging sales fell 7%, and enterprise server product revenue was down 10%. On the upside, HP's services business, software revenue, and finance division all grew profits over the same period -- but not enough to offset these declines. The company's CEO, Meg Whitman,...
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Weak consumer demand and a limited impact from the Thailand floods in the last part of the year drove PC sales down significantly in the US, while the global market saw a smaller 1.4 percent decline. The impact of the HDD shortage is expected to bite partly in Q1; while the floods hit in Q4, most manufacturers had sufficient inventory levels to see them through much of the end of the year. “Continuously low consumer PC demand resulted in weak holiday PC shipments,” said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner. “While economic uncertainty in Western Europe had an effect on consumer PC shipments, expectations of a healthier economic outlook in North America could not stimulate...
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