San Francisco - Hewlett-Packard Co, the world's largest personal-computer maker, saw profits rise 14 per cent in the third quarter on strong international sales and robust demand for high- margin notebooks, the company reported Tuesday. H-P said that it earned 2.03 billion dollars, or 80 cents a share, up from 1.78 billion dollars, or 66 cents a share, a year earlier. Third-quarter sales increased 10 per cent to 28 billion dollars.
The company said that 5 per cent of the sales boost was attributable to currency fluctuations.
Sales rose 16 per cent in Europe to 11.2 billion dollars and 14 per cent in Asia-Pacific to 5.2 billion dollars. Revenue in the US grew just 4 per cent to 11.6 billion dollars.
Computer sales rose 15 per cent globally to 10.3 billion dollars as customers were attracted to sleek new notebook designs. Notebook revenue increased 26 per cent while sales of desktops grew by 6 per cent. The company's printing and imaging group saw sales rise 3 per cent to 7 billion dollars.
"By accelerating our enterprise growth and executing well across the portfolio, HP delivered a strong third-quarter performance," said Mark Hurd, HP chairman and chief executive. "Our global position, broad product and services offerings and incremental cost-saving opportunities make us confident that we'll continue to meaningfully expand earnings."
