Commenting on its year-end figures – see page seven, which triumphantly shoot it through the $20,000m-a-year mark and into the number two position in the US computer industry behind IBM Corp (number three in the world after IBM and Fujitsu Ltd), Hewlett-Packard Co says that orders taken in the fourth quarter stood at $5,500m, $2,800m from the US, $2,700m from the rest of the world, up from $4,400m a year ago; total orders at year-end were $20,800m, up from $16,800m a year ago; on the downside, the company warns that it expects upward pressure on cost of sales to continue in 1994, but adds that it is starting fiscal 1994 with good momentum; cost of sales for the fourth quarter was 61.4% of net revenue, compared with 58.1% in the fourth quarter of last year, reflecting pricing and other competitive pressures in many parts of the businesses, a continuing shift in companywide revenue mix to products with higher cost of sales and a growing proportion of sales through indirect channels; the fourth quarter is also up on the 59.8% reported in the third quarter; operating expenses rose 11% this quarter, compared with the year-ago period, and represented 30.2% of net revenue, down from 35.9% in the year-ago quarter, and 31.6% in third quarter of 1993.
