英語學習筆記

by Justin Scheck
　Breaking from other technology chiefs who
have recently expressed optimism, Hewlett-
Packard Co. (HPQ) Chief Executive Mark Hurd
waned he hasn't seen the tech industry emerge
from its painful slump.
　Hurd said in an interview that the spending
climate "looks the same" in the current quarter as
the previous quarter, where H-P reported sharp
declines in sales of its PCs and printers. He later
added in a conference call, "I'm not ready to call it
better."
　Hurd said H-P will cut an additional 2% of its
work as part of its purchase of Electronic Data
Systems, a technology services company. The
company is already cutting 25,000 jobs because of
the deal.
　Hurd's remarks tempered the recent optimism
generated by executives a other tech companies,
including Cisco System Inc. (CSCO) and Intel
Corp. (INTC), who have said that sales declines
have either leveled off or look better than previ-
ously. (This story and related background mate-
rial will be available on The Wall Street Journal
Web site, WSJ.com.)
　On Tuesday, H-P posted a 17% profit drop and
3.2%  revenue decline for its fiscal second quarter
ended April 30. It was the first year-over-year de-
cline in quarterly revenue for the Palo Alto, Calif.,
company since Hurd took over as CEO in 2005.
　While H-P maintained its profit projections
for the fiscal year, the company sounded a more
cautious note its revenue. H-P said revenue
will likely decline 4% to 5% for the fiscal year,
compare with a previous forecast for 2% to
5% fall.
　That sent H-P's shares down nearly 5% in af-
ter-hours trading to $34.86, after the company
's stock closed at 4 p.m. at $36.58 on the New
York Stock Exchange.
　Until recently, H-P, the world's largest PC
company by revenue, had steadily growing
profit and revenue, and was outpacing competi-
tors like Dell Inc. (DELL) in the PC business.
But H-P stumbled at the end of last year as cor-
porate tech spending plunged.
　For the second quarter, H-P reported profit
of $1.72 billion, or 70 cents a share, compared
with $2.06 billion, or 80 cents a share, a year
earlier. H-P's results for the fiscal second quar-
ter included a 2-cent-a-share hit due to patent
litigation with Cornell University. Revenue was
$27.35 billion, compared with $28.26 billion a
year ago.
　Overall, the results were in line with Wall
Street expectations. "We're pretty pleased with
the result," said Bill Kreher, an analyst at Ed-
ward Jones, though he added that "we're not
seeing clear sings of a pickup" in the tech mar-
ket.
　Revenu at H-P's PC division dropped 19%
from a year earlier, to $8.2 billion. Hit by de-
clining PC prices, the unit's operating profit
margin was 4.6%, down from 5.4% last year. In
the imaging and printing unit, revenue slid 23%
to $5.9 billion.