Hewlett-Packard Q2 net jumps 16% at $2.06 bn

The company had a net profit of $1.78 billion in the year-ago period. For the latest quarter, HP's net revenue shot up by 11 per cent to $28.26 billion. It had reported a net revenue of $25.53 billion in the corresponding period a year ago.     

Earlier this month, the firm had announced that it would acquire technology services company EDS for an estimated $13.9 billion to expand its Indian presence.     

"HP turned in another strong quarter, supported by improvement across our businesses. With 70 per cent of revenue now coming from outside the US, we benefited from robust demand in emerging economies," HP Chairman and Chief Executive officer Mark Hurd said in a statement on Tuesday.     

Revenues from Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC countries) grew 26 per cent over the prior year period and accounted for 10 per cent of the total revenue.     

The California-based firm saw a 31 per cent growth in revenues from sale of notebook for the latest quarter whereas revenues from desktop remained flat.     

Meanwhile, HP anticipates the acquisition of EDS to close in the second half of 2008. The deal is expected to more than double HP's services revenue, which amounted to $16.6 billion in fiscal 2007.    

Moreover, combination of both the firms would advance HP's objective of strengthening its service business and provide better competitive edge against its rival IBM Corp. The combined entity would offer services such as IT outsourcing, business process outsourcing and HR outsourcing.    

The firm while announcing the deal had said it intends to establish a new business group, to be branded EDS and headquartered at Electronic Data Systems' existing executive offices in Plano, Texas.    

HP expects to have revenues to the tune of $114.2 billion to $114.4 billion for the fiscal year 2008. Earlier, the firm had a revenue guidance of $113.5 billion to $114.0 billion for the same period.    

According to Hurd, the company's financial outlook demonstrates its strength in the global marketplace.