HP Printers: OfficePro 8500 For Excellent Hardcopy

When the HP OfficePro 8500 printer was released last year a portion of us thought that paying $399 was a hard pill to swallow, but they did not understand how much printer they were getting for their money. However for all those who did not want to pay that price we can now tell you that this excellent hardcopy printer now costs less than $300.

For those of you who use a printer a lot, then the HP OfficePro 8500 is perfect thanks to its large printer ink cartridges, and is ideal for the modern day home and business with laptops and desktops with its LAN and wireless connectivity.

The larger ink cartridges are said to offer 1,400 pages of color and 2,200 black and white printing. This is certainly unheard of with inkjet printers and is something more common with laser printers – although the cost per sheet works out to be half the price of the laser version.

Lamont Wood from Information Week has spent some time reviewing the HP OfficePro 8500 printer and concludes that it is perfect for the smaller office or home, but would struggle when demand is high. For more details visit the source link.

Via: product-reviews.net

HP Quarterly Profit Rises 6%

(RTTNews) - Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ: News ) said Thursday after the markets closed that its third quarter profit rose a modest 6% from last year, as an 11% revenue growth due to strength in its server, PC and printer businesses was dented by higher costs and expenses.

The Palo, Alto, California-based company reported GAAP net income for the third quarter of $1.8 billion or $0.75 per share, compared to $1.7 billion or $0.69 per share for the year-ago quarter.

Excluding amortization of purchased intangibles, restructuring charges and other items, non-GAAP net income for the third quarter was $2.6 billion or $1.08 per share, compared to $2.2 billion or $0.92 per share in the prior year quarter.

On average, 30 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to earn $1.08 per share for the third quarter. Analysts’ estimates typically exclude special items.

GAAP operating margin for the third quarter decreased to 7.6% from 8.0% a year ago, while non-GAAP operating margin improved to 11.2% from 10.9% last year.

HP which is the world’s largest technology company, said net revenue for the third quarter rose 11% to $30.73 billion from $27.59 billion in the same quarter last year. Twenty-seven analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $30.43 billion for the third quarter.

HP’s final third quarter results matched with its preliminary results revealed on August 6 while announcing the sudden and surprise resignation of Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President Mark Hurd following an investigation of sexual harassment allegations against Hurd and the the company by a former HP contractor.

Hurd, who was at the helm of HP for 5 years, pushed the company beyond personal computers into more profitable areas such as outsourcing and computer networking. He directed more than $20 billion in acquisitions, and arranged severe cost cutting, including about 50,000 job cuts. Since Hurd’s forced resignation, the company’s market value has fallen by about $12 billion.

Third quarter revenue in the Americas rose 12% year-over-year to $14.2 billion, while revenue in Europe, the Middle East and Africa increased 9% to $10.9 billion and Asia Pacific revenue jumped 14% to $5.6 billion.

Third quarter revenue from the company’s international business constituted 63% of the total revenue. Revenue from the so-called emerging markets of Brazil, Russia, India and China increased 21% over the prior year period and accounted for 11% of total revenue.

Third quarter revenue from HP’s Personal Systems Group rose 17% year-over-year to $9.9 billion, with unit shipments up 12%. Notebook revenue for the quarter increased 10%, while Desktop revenue jumped 27%. HP continues to be the world’s largest PC maker. It had taken the world PC lead from Dell in 2006.

Via: rttnews.com

HP could be taken over

The maker of printer ink, which is more expensive than blood, could be taken over now that its leader is counting his golden handshake somewhere hot.

The strokers of beards and people in the know have been wondering if the departure of Mark Hurd from HP could make the outfit ripe for a take over.

OK you would need shedloads of cash to take over HP, but some like Tom Foremsk thinks that it is doable.

The name that keeps popping up is Oracle which should have enough cash to do it. The reason Oracle is being named is that it would help  consolidation with Oracle’s Sun arm.  HP would be able to beef up its services group and its troubled middleware and software businesses.

Oracle might like the idea because in one acquisition it would be IBM’s largest and ablest competitor.  It would be able to match in every business groups across the globe.
OK, there would be a huge “anti-trust” yowl from Biggish Blue, but Oracle might just be able to pull it off.
Larry Ellison is a mate of Hurd.  Buying HP and letting his chum rule over  at the integration would be a damn fine way of putting his money where his mouth is about Hurd’s abilities.

If it happened it would be a mess.  There would be shedloads of jobs that would go. However many think that consolidation is a way forward for the IT industry.

We should point out that while ERP Market Analyst Stephen Jannise  thinks Oracle will buy up lots more companies, HP was not on his list  however Hurd’s departure puts a new spin on things.
Normally a CEO would fight to the last bullet to stop his company being taken over.  With HP leaderless it is a lot easier for the likes of Oracle to out-maneuver any caretaker.

Via: techeye.net