HP blames strong dollar on fall in Q1 revenue

Meg Whitman insists company is still on track

A stronger dollar has been blamed for HP posting a drop in revenue for its first quarter of its fiscal 2015.

For the three months to 31 January 2015 non-GAAP net profit fell two per cent year on year to $1.71bn (£1.10bn) on non-GAAP net revenue which dropped five per cent to $26.8bn over the same period.

In an earnings release, HP said: "The US dollar has strengthened considerably since HP last provided an FY15 outlook in November 2014. As is the case with many US-based companies, this currency challenge is having a significant impact on HP's financial outlook."

On an earnings call transcribed by Seeking Alpha, HP's chief executive Meg Whitman insisted that her company was still on track.

"We're all aware that the global environment and currency movements have been a challenge for US-based companies," she said. "For HP the challenge is particularly acute, with 65 per cent of our revenue coming from outside the US and over half of that from EMEA. This all impacts HP in multiple ways; the strength of the US dollar negatively impacted our reported revenue.

"Aggressive pricing from our Japanese competitors in the printing business given the weakness of the yen was a continued challenge. We were able to manage these impacts in the quarter and deliver earnings as expected.

"Overall we're on track with our turnaround and executing well on our separation".

Last month CRN reported that HP had raised its prices by up to 6.5 per cent on some of its kit for UK resellers, following currency fluctuations.

In Q1, HP saw a drop in its printing revenue of five per cent year over year, with its total hardware units falling four per cent and consumer hardware units dropping six per cent over the same period.

The American behemoth also saw its software revenue fall by five per cent year over year, and its enterprise services revenue dropped 11 per cent over the same period.

Cathie Lesjak, executive vice president and chief financial officer, said the firm will continue its job-cut plan in 2015, following a series of redundancies in 2014.

"In Q1 about 2,800 people exited the company, making the total reduction to date approximately 44,000," she said. "We are on track to complete this existing programme, with a total of 55,000 people expected to exit by the end of fiscal 2015," she said.