Hewlett-Packard delivered strong fiscal fourth-quarter results, considering the economic downturn that has had a more serious impact on rival Dell.

As reported last week in preliminary results for the quarter ended Oct. 31, HP reported a 2% jump in revenue to $33.6 billion, excluding the acquisition of services company EDS and including currency adjustments. If EDS revenue is included, then sales were up 16% from the same period a year ago.

Net income rose about 4% to $2.7 billion, or 84 cents a share, as aggressive cost cutting gave a solid boost to the bottom line. "HP capped off a strong year by delivering another solid quarter led by strength in our services segment and disciplined expense management," Mark Hurd, HP's chairman and chief executive, said in a statement.

HP saw a 10% increase year over year in PC sales to $11.2 billion, with unit shipments up 19%. Revenue from notebooks, the fastest-growing segment of the market, rose 21%, while desktop revenue fell 2%. Business PC revenue grew by 7%, while consumer PC revenue rose by 15%.

Revenue from enterprise storage and servers fell 1% to $5.1 billion, while sales from HP's printer business declined 1% to $7.5 billion.

HP services revenue, excluding the EDS acquisition, grew by 10%. Separately, technology services and outsourcing services increased 10% and 15%, respectively.

For the current first fiscal quarter of 2009, HP expects earnings from 80 cents to 82 cents a share on revenue from $32 billion to $32.5 billion.

By: DocMemory
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