"As we discussed during our Securities Analyst Meeting last month, fiscal 2012 was the first year in a multiyear journey to turn HP around," said Meg Whitman, HP president and chief executive officer. "We're starting to see progress in key areas, such as new product releases and customer wins. We're particularly pleased that in Q4, we were able to improve our balance sheet, generating $4.1 billion in operating cash flow, and we returned $384 million to shareholders in the form of share repurchases and dividends."

Fourth Fiscal Quarter 2012 Business Group Results

• Personal Systems revenue was down 14% year over year with a 3.5% operating margin. Commercial revenue decreased 13%, and Consumer revenue declined 16%. Total units were down 12% with both Desktops and Notebooks units down 12%.
  
  
• Printing revenue declined 5% year over year with a 17.5% operating margin. Total hardware units were down 20% year over year. Commercial hardware units were down 15% year over year, and Consumer hardware units were down 22% year over year.
  
  
• Services revenue declined 6% year over year with a 14.2% operating margin. Technology Services revenue was down 4% year over year, Application and Business Services revenue was down 7% year over year, and IT Outsourcing revenue declined 6% year over year.
  
  
• Enterprise Servers, Storage and Networking (ESSN) revenue declined 9% year over year with an 8.3% operating margin. Networking revenue was up 7%, Industry Standard Servers revenue was down 7%, Business Critical Systems revenue was down 25%, and Storage revenue was down 13% year over year.
  
  
• Software revenue grew 14% year over year with a 27.2% operating margin, including the results of Autonomy. Software revenue was driven by 9% license growth, 9% support growth, and 48% growth in services.
  
  
• HP Financial Services revenue grew 1% year over year as a 3% increase in net portfolio assets was offset by an 11% decrease in financing volume. The business delivered a 10.8% operating margin.

Asset Management
HP generated $4.1 billion in cash flow from operations in the fourth quarter. Inventory ended the quarter at $6.3 billion, with days of inventory down 2 days year over year to 25 days. Accounts receivable of $16.4 billion was down 2 days year over year to 49 days. Accounts payable ended the quarter at $13.4 billion, up 1 day from the prior-year period to 53 days. HP's dividend payment of $0.132 per share in the fourth quarter resulted in cash usage of $260 million. HP also utilized $124 million of cash during the quarter to repurchase approximately 7.6 million shares of common stock in the open market. HP exited the quarter with $11.8 billion in gross cash.

HP recorded a non-cash charge for the impairment of goodwill and intangible assets within its Software segment of approximately $8.8 billion in the fourth quarter of its 2012 fiscal year. The majority of this impairment charge is linked to serious accounting improprieties, disclosure failures and outright misrepresentations at Autonomy Corporation plc that occurred prior to HP's acquisition of Autonomy and the associated impact of those improprieties, failures and misrepresentations on the expected future financial performance of the Autonomy business over the long-term. The balance of the impairment charge is linked to the recent trading value of HP stock. There will be no cash impact associated with the impairment charge.

Outlook
For the first quarter of fiscal 2013, HP estimates non-GAAP diluted EPS to be in the range of $0.68 to $0.71 and GAAP diluted EPS to be in the range of $0.34 to $0.37.

First quarter fiscal 2013 non-GAAP diluted EPS estimates exclude after-tax costs of approximately $0.34 per share, related primarily to the amortization of purchased intangible assets, restructuring charges and acquisition-related charges.

For the full year fiscal 2013, HP estimates a non-GAAP diluted EPS to be in the range of $3.40 to $3.60 and GAAP diluted EPS to be in the range of $2.10 to $2.30, in line with HP's previously communicated outlook.

Full year fiscal 2013 non-GAAP diluted EPS estimates exclude after-tax costs of approximately $1.30 per share, related primarily to the amortization of purchased intangible assets, restructuring charges and acquisition-related charges.

More information on HP's earnings, including additional financial analysis and an earnings overview presentation, is available on HP's Investor Relations website at www.hp.com/investor/home.

HP's Q4 FY12 earnings conference call is accessible via an audio webcast at www.hp.com/investor/2012Q4webcast.

About HP
HP creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people, businesses, governments and society. The world's largest technology company, HP brings together a portfolio that spans printing, personal computing, software, services and IT infrastructure to solve customer problems. More information about HP is available at http://www.hp.com.

Use of non-GAAP financial information
To supplement HP's consolidated condensed financial statements presented on a GAAP basis, HP provides non-GAAP net revenue, non-GAAP operating profit, non-GAAP operating margin, non-GAAP net earnings, non-GAAP diluted earnings per share, gross cash and free cash flow. HP also provides forecasts of non-GAAP diluted earnings per share. A reconciliation of the adjustments to GAAP results for this quarter and prior periods is included in the tables below. In addition, an explanation of the ways in which HP management uses these non-GAAP measures to evaluate its business, the substance behind HP management's decision to use these non-GAAP measures, the material limitations associated with the use of these non-GAAP measures, the manner in which HP management compensates for those limitations, and the substantive reasons why HP management believes that these non-GAAP measures provide useful information to investors is included under "Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures" after the tables below. This additional non-GAAP financial information is not meant to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for revenue, operating profit, operating margin, net earnings, diluted earnings per share, cash and cash equivalents or cash flow from operations prepared in accordance with GAAP.

Forward-looking statements
This news release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. If the risks or uncertainties ever materialize or the assumptions prove incorrect, the results of HP may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and assumptions. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including but not limited to any projections of revenue, margins, expenses, earnings, earnings per share, tax provisions, cash flows, benefit obligations, share repurchases, currency exchange rates or other financial items; any projections of the amount, timing or impact of cost savings or restructuring charges; any statements of the plans, strategies and objectives of management for future operations, including the execution of restructuring plans and any resulting cost savings or revenue or profitability improvements; any statements concerning the expected development, performance, market share or competitive performance relating to products or services; any statements regarding current or future macroeconomic trends or events and the impact of those trends and events on HP and its financial performance; any statements regarding pending investigations, claims or disputes; any statements of expectation or belief; and any statements of assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions include the impact of macroeconomic and geopolitical trends and events; the competitive pressures faced by HP's businesses; the development and transition of new products and services and the enhancement of existing products and services to meet customer needs and respond to emerging technological trends; the execution and performance of contracts by HP and its suppliers, customers and partners; the protection of HP's intellectual property assets, including intellectual property licensed from third parties; integration and other risks associated with business combination and investment transactions; the hiring and retention of key employees; assumptions related to pension and other post-retirement costs and retirement programs; the execution, timing and results of restructuring plans, including estimates and assumptions related to the cost and the anticipated benefits of implementing those plans; the resolution of pending investigations, claims and disputes; and other risks that are described in HP's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2011 and HP's other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including HP's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended July 31, 2012. As in prior periods, the financial information set forth in this release, including tax-related items, reflects estimates based on information available at this time. While HP believes these estimates to be meaningful, these amounts could differ materially from actual reported amounts in HP's Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2012. In particular, determining HP's actual tax balances and provisions as of October 31, 2012 requires extensive internal and external review of tax data (including consolidating and reviewing the tax provisions of numerous domestic and foreign entities), which is being completed in the ordinary course of preparing HP's Form 10-K. HP assumes no obligation and does not intend to update these forward-looking statements.