EDS salvages HP’s third quarter profits

HP has recorded a 19% fall in quarterly profits as European businesses continue to hedge their bets on upgrades.

The company’s chief executive Mark Hurd blamed the fall on Europe’s continuing fascination with netbooks, and a general reluctance on the part of company’s to upgrade.

In its third financial quarter, the company’s profits hit $1.64 billion, down 19% from the same period last year. However, without restructuring and acquisition costs that figure would have been up around $2.2 billion.

Sales dipped to $27.5 billion from $28 billion, falling in every department except Services – which was bolstered by last year’s blockbuster acquisition of EDS. However, analysts are questioning just how much more HP can squeeze out of that cash cow with sales jumping a further 93% in the third quarter.

Elsewhere, HP watched its enterprise business shrink 23% to $3.7 billion, with storage and servers down 21%. Software revenues were down 22% to $847 million, while printers slid 20% to $5.7 billion.

HP is still predicting full-year revenues in 2009 to be around 5% lower on last year’s $118.4 billion, though the company reckons £2010 will be a better year than 2009.”