The Paper reporter Yang Yang

　　HP announced plans to "slim down" amid weak demand in the PC market.

　　After the U.S. stock market closed on November 22, local time, personal computer maker Hewlett-Packard (HP Inc) released its results for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2022 as of October 31 this year. One hundred million U.S. dollars.

HP said that it plans to cut 4,000 to 6,000 people globally in the next three years, or 10% of its 51,000 employees, in order to save costs and achieve transformation.

　　HP said the "Future Ready Transformation Plan" will reduce the company's total annualized operating costs by at least $1.4 billion over the next three years, including about $1 billion in restructuring-related costs.

Of that $1 billion, HP said, $600 million will be allocated to fiscal 2023, which ends Oct. 31, 2023, and the remainder will be split evenly between fiscal 2024 and 2025.

　　It has been three years since the last layoff at HP.

The US Consumer News and Business Channel (CNBC) stated that the company's last layoffs date back to 2019, when HP announced that it would lay off 7,000 to 9,000 employees.

As of October 2021, HP has about 51,000 employees.

　　In the post-epidemic era, the dividends of home office have subsided, and consumers' demand for personal computers has decreased, resulting in a sharp decline in shipments of HP's main product, personal computers.

HP's fourth-quarter financial report shows that the company's revenue during the period fell by 11.2% year-on-year to US$14.8 billion; its net loss was US$2 million, compared with a net profit of US$3.1 billion in the same period last year, turning profit into a loss year-on-year.

　　In the fourth fiscal quarter, HP's Personal Systems division (Personal Systems) revenue, including personal computers, fell 13% to $10.3 billion. The consumer business revenue under this division fell sharply by 25%, and the commercial business revenue fell by 6%; shipments In terms of volume, HP's total shipments in the fourth quarter fell by 21%, of which notebook computer shipments fell by 26% and desktop computer shipments fell by 3%. It was down to 4.5% from 6.9% in the previous quarter.

　　Based on HP's pessimistic earnings guidance, for the next quarter, the company forecast adjusted net profit per share of 70 cents to 80 cents, lower than analysts' forecast of 86 cents.

For fiscal 2023, HP expects adjusted net income of $3.20 to $3.60 per share, also below analysts' forecast of $3.62 per share.

The company predicts that in the next fiscal quarter, demand for PCs will decline further.

　　Not just HP, but the entire PC market is struggling with weak demand.

According to a report released by research firm Gartner in October, global PC shipments totaled 68 million units in the past quarter, down 19.5% year-on-year, the biggest drop since the analyst firm began tracking the PC market in the mid-1990s.

　　Gartner analyst Mikako Kitagawa believes this marks a historic slowdown in the PC market.

He said, "Given the weak demand for PCs in the consumer and business markets, high inventory has become a major problem. Although many companies have carried out large-scale promotions and price reductions, sales results have been disappointing, because many consumers in the past Having bought new PCs in two years, there is currently a lack of demand. On the business side, with geopolitical and economic uncertainty leading to more selective IT spending, PCs are not on consumers' priority lists."

　　HP rival Dell (Dell Inc) is also facing the same problem.

Dell's total revenue fell 6% to $24.7 billion in the third quarter.

The company said the weakness in the PC market will continue, and PC revenue is expected to decline even more in the next quarter.

　　As of the close of U.S. stocks on November 22, HP rose slightly by 0.75% to close at $29.38 per share.