PC maker Lenovo reports booming sales, while HP slashes another 16,000 jobs

Chinese consumer electronics firm Lenovo has reported a 14% increase in full-year revenues to $US38.7 billion as US-based rival HP reported a 1% year-on-year drop in its quarterly revenues and massive new job cuts.

In its second quarter results for fiscal year 2014, HP reported year-on-year  revenue falls across its printing (down 4%), enterprise (down 2%) and enterprise services (down 7%) and financial services (down 2%) divisions, while its software sales were flat.

In its core personal systems business, despite a 6% increase in desktop PC shipments and a 6% increase in notebooks, consumer sales revenue fell by 2%, although this was more than offset by 12% increase in sales to businesses.

Despite a $US300 million year-on-year fall in quarterly net revenue to $US27.3 billion, the company managed to grow its net earnings by 18% to $US1.3 billion by increasing its operating margin to 6.7%, up from 5.8% a year earlier.

The increase in operating margin came about through an ongoing restructuring program, which will see it cut up to 16,000 more jobs.

The situation at HP is a stark contrast to rival Lenovo, which reported record full-year shipment volumes of 55 million PCs, 50 million smartphones and 9.2 million tablets. The figures exclude sales by handset maker Motorola Mobility, which the company is in the process of purchasing off Google.

The company says its combined PC and tablet sales are up 18% year-on-year, with total device sales up 37% over last year.

During the March quarter, the company’s net income grew to $US158.3 million, up from $US126.9 million a year earlier, off revenues of $US9.4 billion, up 19% year-on-year.