Advertisement

HP commits $10 billion more to stock repurchases

Share via

Hewlett-Packard Co., the world’s largest maker of personal computers and printers, said Monday that its board had approved an additional $10 billion for share repurchases.

The move adds to $4.9 billion already available and will help offset dilution from employee stock purchases, HP said.

The company will repurchase at least $3 billion in shares in the fourth quarter ending in October, interim Chief Executive Cathie Lesjak said in a statement.

The Palo Alto company is in a bidding war with Dell Inc. for data storage provider 3Par Inc. of Fremont. HP last week topped Dell in the bidding for 3Par for a third time. HP offered the largest premium in a competitive situation since 2001, according to Bloomberg data.

HP bought back about $2.6 billion worth of shares last quarter, the company said. In November, HP set aside $8 billion for buybacks.

HP shares climbed 56 cents, or 1.5%, to $38.56 in trading Monday. They have fallen 25% this year.

The company is searching for a new chief executive after the Aug. 6 departure of Mark Hurd. The former chief executive stepped down after an inquiry into sexual harassment claims found he filed inaccurate expense reports to conceal a personal relationship with a marketing contractor.

Also Monday, HP agreed to pay $55 million to settle a U.S. investigation into the company. The agreement resolves a Justice Department probe of whether the company overcharged taxpayers in a government contract.

The accord also settles claims, first filed in a lawsuit by a whistleblower and then joined by the government, that HP paid kickbacks to win government business.

HP said Aug. 2 that it was settling the case and trimming earnings by 2 cents a share in the third quarter. The U.S. earlier settled similar kickback allegations involving EMC Corp., IBM Corp., PricewaterhouseCoopers and Computer Sciences Corp.

HP did not respond to requests for comment.

Advertisement