HP Makes Billions in a Single Quarter, webOS Wastes a Truckload

HP's fiscal year ended on October 31, which means that, for it, the fourth quarter of 2011 was the August-October period, so, naturally, it revealed how its money situation evolved.

Turns out that evolved is a very appropriate word, since the IT giant amassed a revenue of $127.4 billion for the whole FY 2011

This left it with a net revenue of $32.1 billion in Q4, which is a lot of billions for just one company, especially knowing that they were gathered in just three months.

“While FY11 proved to be a challenging year, we grew non-GAAP EPS 7% and generated $12.6 billion in cash flow from operations,” said Cathie Lesjak, HP executive vice president and chief financial officer.

“We're remaining cautious heading into FY12 but are focused on delivering our earnings outlook and driving shareholder value.”

Things get more odd when the losses from webOS are factored in into the numbers.

Essentially, webOS cost HP 3.3 billion, more money than the whole capital of many IT companies in the world (and more than what Q4 made).

Even with all those operating profits of $9.7 billion for 2011, the sum is immense, particularly as the company didn't actually invest much time and effort into the software.

Obviously, HP will be trying to get its stick back up, after the fall it suffered from the period when it was said that it would back out of the PC market (even though it was the biggest fish there).

“HP has a great opportunity to build on our strong hardware, software, and services franchises with leading market positions, customer relationships, and intellectual property,” said Meg Whitman, HP president and chief executive officer.

“We need to get back to the business fundamentals in fiscal 2012, including making prudent investments in the business and driving more consistent execution.”

It will be interesting to see what HP does on the tablet market next, provided it doesn't back out completely like this report said.