Hewlett-Packard CEO Acknowledges Press Release Mistake

On Thursday,

leaked partial results of quarterly earnings during trading hours driving the share price approximately 2 percent lower. The company's Chief Executive Officer acknowledged the mistake on Hewlett- Packard's conference call. Prior to Thursday's market close, Hewlett-Packard released partial results from the first quarter. Although the company met expected earnings per share target, a $110 million miss in revenue had shares falling 5.2 percent from $33.00 to $31.37 at 3:30 a.m. (ET). The revenue miss wasn't the company's biggest announcement, though. In the full results, the company announced it was increasing layoff by another 11,000 to 16,000 jobs, for a total number 50,000 jobs cut. On Hewlett-Packard's conference call, CEO Meg Whitman apologized for the mistake. Whitman said, “Before we go to questions, I'm sure you all noticed that earlier today, the HP press release with earnings went live before the appropriate time and we are sorry about that, and we'll make sure that that doesn't happen again.” Shares of Hewlett-Packard opened at $32.31 on Friday and continued to climb as high as $34.09 following results and comments from management. The stock is currently trading at $33.92, up 6.73 percent from Thursday's close.