Hewlett-Packard Corporation (NYSE: HPQ) followed its latest bad quarterly results with a prediction for a faltering 2009. According to CEO Mark Hurd, the world's largest computer maker will see many more quarters that ended up like its most recent one.HP will be continuing to cut costs as prudently and as fast as it can, to the tune of $1 billion. Hurd indicated that "we are not advocating or forecasting any improvement from our first quarter" at a recent investor conference. So, with that in mind, he basically gave guidance relegating HP to the same bad bucket of results expected for the entire PC industry this year.
HP's recent Q1 period was the first since Hurd took over from former CEO Carly Fiorina in 2005 that the company has not exceeded profit expectations. In other words, reality finally set in for HP and it took a recession to do it. The computer, printer and software maker still is positioned to keep beating rival Dell, Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) and challenge International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) as one of the world's biggest computer conglomerates, but it will be suffering more like Dell and not having the successes IBM has seen, for now at least.
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