HP earnings tumble; 27,000 job cuts confirmed

Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) CEO Meg Whitman said the company "exceeded our previously provided outlook," for the second quarter and admitted the company still had "a lot of work to do," after announcing second quarter earnings Wednesday that included sharply lower net income. Whitman said the company would continue its restructuring and also confirmed plans to cut 27,000 jobs, or about 7 percent of its global workforce, in an effort to move the company forward. HPs net income of $1.6 billion, or 80 cents a share, topped Wall Street expectations, as did the $30.7 billion in revenue it reported. But the net was down 31 percent, from $2.3 billion, or $1.07 per share a year ago. Revenue was off 3 percent. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company saw shares rise in after hours trading more than 9 percent to $23, after closing down 3.21 percent. The stock has traded in a 52-week range of $20.57 to $37.70. In a New York Times interview, Whitman said, "We don't aspire to have a 3 percent decline in revenues. There are big changes going on, and we have to position ourselves." Whitman told the Times that HP "will be much bigger," both in employees and revenue. First, however, come the job cuts, many of which will be from the U.S. workforce. The company expects those cuts to help trim costs by $3.5 billion a year