HP 2014 Annual Report Download - page 107

HEWLETT-PACKARD COMPANY AND SUBSIDIARIES
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements (Continued)
Note 1: Summary of Significant Accounting Policies (Continued)
does not use derivative financial instruments for speculative purposes. See Note 11 for a full
description of HP’s derivative financial instrument activities and related accounting policies.
Loss Contingencies
HP is involved in various lawsuits, claims, investigations and proceedings that arise in the ordinary
course of business. HP records a liability for contingencies when it believes it is both probable that a
liability has been incurred and the amount of the loss can be reasonably estimated. See Note 15 for a
full description of HP’s loss contingencies and related accounting policies.
Note 2: Segment Information
HP is a leading global provider of products, technologies, software, solutions and services to
individual consumers, small- and medium-sized businesses (‘‘SMBs’’) and large enterprises, including
customers in the government, health and education sectors. HP’s offerings span personal computing
and other access devices; imaging- and printing-related products and services; enterprise information
technology (‘‘IT’’) infrastructure, including enterprise server and storage technology, networking
products and solutions, and technology support and maintenance; multi-vendor customer services,
including technology consulting, outsourcing and support services across infrastructure, applications and
business process domains; and IT management software, application testing and delivery software,
information management solutions, big data analytics, security intelligence and risk management
solutions.
HP’s operations are organized into seven segments for financial reporting purposes: Personal
Systems, Printing, the EG, ES, Software, HP Financial Services (‘‘HPFS’’) and Corporate Investments.
HP’s organizational structure is based on a number of factors that management uses to evaluate, view
and run its business operations, which include, but are not limited to, customer base and homogeneity
of products and technology. The segments are based on this organizational structure and information
reviewed by HP’s management to evaluate segment results.
The Personal Systems segment and the Printing segment are structured beneath a broader Printing
and Personal Systems Group (‘‘PPS’’). While PPS is not a reportable segment, HP may provide
financial data aggregating the Personal Systems and the Printing segments in order to provide a
supplementary view of its business.
A summary description of each segment follows.
The Printing and Personal Systems Group’s mission is to leverage the respective strengths of the
Personal Systems business and the Printing business by creating a unified organization that is customer-
focused and poised to capitalize on rapidly shifting industry trends. Each of the segments within PPS is
described below.
Personal Systems provides commercial Personal Computers (‘‘PCs’’), consumer PCs, workstations,
thin clients, tablets, retail point-of-sale systems, calculators and other related accessories, software,
support and services for the commercial and consumer markets. HP groups commercial notebooks,
commercial desktops, commercial tablets, workstations and thin clients into commercial clients and
consumer notebooks, consumer desktops and consumer tablets into consumer clients when describing
performance in these markets. Described below are HP’s global business capabilities within Personal
Systems.
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