Technology Slice Blog

HP Posts Solid Earnings - Although it didn’t have a permanent chief executive for all of its fourth fiscal quarter ended Oct. 31, Hewlett-Packard still turned out solid results during the period and it raised its outlook for the coming year. The company reported solid results despite the fact that the board fired chief executive Mark Hurd in August. In a conference call, newly appointed HP CEO Leo Apotheker said the company would reinstitute salary increases in 2011. That’s in keeping with the talent war in tech, as evidenced by Google’s recent decision to give all employees a 10 percent raise. It’s a big deal since HP has more than 300,000 employees. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company reported net income of $2.5 billion, up 5 percent from $2.4 billion a year earlier. Earnings per share were $1.10, up from 99 cents a year earlier. Quarterly revenue was $33.3 billion, up 8 percent from a year earlier. The company said it saw broad-based growth in its commercial sales business, p...