DELL

HP Embarrassed by Poor Acquisition

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In addition to reporting declining earnings and sales, Hewlett Packard (click ticker for report: ) announced an enormous $8.8 billion write-down on the purchase of UK-based software firm Autonomy. Fourth quarter 2012 revenue dropped 7% year-over-year to $30 billion, a larger decline than previously anticipated. Earnings, net of $4.65 per share of impairment charges, fell by just a penny to $1.16 per share, which was slightly better than expected. The meaningful write-down of Autonomy stole the thunder from the actual underlying results, as several short sellers had questioned the validity of Autonomy’s financial reporting prior to it being acquired by HP. CEO Meg Whitman herself confessed the business was somewhat fraudulent, stating: “The majority of this impairment charge is linked … Read more

Why We Continue to Like Apple and Microsoft

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In yet another negative blow to the PC market, Gartner reports that PC shipments fell 13.8% year-over-year during the third quarter. The big losers, yet again, were the PC giants Dell (click ticker for report: ), HP (click ticker for report: ), and Toshiba. Of course, the shocking loser was Apple (click ticker for report: ), which saw shipments fall 6% (considerably lower than the 25%+ drops of competitors), though market share increased 110 basis points to 13.6%. With the entire industry slumping, who’s to blame? Not surprisingly, we’re labeling Apple as the major disrupter in the PC market. Since the inception of the iPhone and subsequent iPad releases, computing has shifted more and more toward mobile consumption, with the … Read more