Hewlett-Packard reported its third quarter earnings. Although this time they reported huge losses, we should say that the company performed very-well keeping in mind that they had to pay $3 billion restructuring charge during a quite tough quarter.

As reported by EE Times UK, HP-Compaq`s sales decreased 9% to $16.5 billion from $18.2 billion in the prior quarter. The combined company also reported a loss of $2 billion, or minus $0.67 a share, compared to a loss of $116 million, or minus $0.04, in the previous quarter. A year ago, when Hewlett-Packard was without Compaq yet, they reported revenues of $10.28 billion and posted $123 million profit. Now HP is with its partner, their financial state is far from being considered good and we now know why Mr. Walter Hewlett did not want the merge to happen: in short-terms, it only brings losses. However, we should stress that the number one PC supplier spent about $3 billion restructuring charge for merger and non-merger related events during the quarter passed, about $1 billion more than its reported losses!

For the fourth quarter 2002, the company estimates its revenue at $17.4 billion and plans to earn $0.22 per share on a pro forma basis. Taking into account that even this quarter they spent on their actions more than they lost, we strongly believe they will meet their forecasts and finally become profitable. Well, from this point we can only guess how big will this monster grow.