23/05/2013 World Business Report

latest headlines from BBC News. Now for the latest financial news with

Alice Baxter and World Business Report. Hewlett-Packard profits

slump by a third - the latest sign of waning demand for PCs. Plus -

could Iron Man 3 become China's biggest grossing film ever? How

Hollywood is looking eastwards for new cinema audiences. Welcome to

World Business Report. We start with one of the biggest names in

technology - as it struggles to re- adjust to huge changes in the

industry. The world's top PC maker Hewlett-Packard reported quarterly

results after the close of the US markets on Wednesday. It said

profits plunged 32% the three months to April, compared with the

same period last year. This it was being suffered is part of the Act

it epidemic ravaging PC businesses throughout the world. More people

are moving to a portable tablets. Competitors such as Dell and IBM

Minogue though have suffered slumps. The company is restructuring.

29,000 workers may be laid off. Consumers will be offered more

across various ranges including tablets. Business customers will

receive new focus. Even with all that decline, Cathie Lesjak, HP's

CFO, said on the call that the company believed it held PC market

share and made gains in China and India, fast-growing markets for PCs

these days and places where HP and Dell have both struggled against

the local competition. We have made progress, you won't have to wait

five years. The search for a new direction has already been costly.

Hewlett-Packard wrote off $15.3 billion after the disastrous

acquisition of two British This is the principal analyst here.

32%, its suggesting the decline in PC sales is at the root of all

this? In its not just PC sales. This is a reminder that

restructuring processes, as the CEO just reminded us, it may take

several years. We've seen the revenues declining. There has been

marginal improvement in printing but that gives the market some hope

and what seemed a little bit of movement. So no, not all bad news?

Other elements within Hewlett- Packard and doing OK? It's a long

restructuring prepare it. -- process. We may see a few quarters

of improvement. The market may jump to a positive. It's a difficult

process to move from that infrastructure within Hewlett-

Packard to a more serviceable strategy. There talk about

different fortunes. Decline in profits in other companies, and

interestingly, results from others saying they had doubled their

products in China. You need to look carefully. Hewlett-Packard is not

just an infrastructure company so the comparison is slightly

difficult. We've seen others tried to to similar moves away from

infrastructure. Other companies focus on infrastructure and scale

and other mechanisms. Hewlett- Packard went the other way, moving

away with an announcement tried to sell the PC business. They tried to

de emphasize that infrastructure. Disney's 'Iron Man 3' movie is

proving to a superhero at the box office. Within a month of its

global release it has raked in more than $ 1billion around the world.

On its opening weekend in China it made a record-breaking $65 million,

and could become the country's highest-grossing film of all time.

As Samira Hussain reports, the Chinese market is now a vital part

of the business plan for Hollywood studios. As far as movies go, Super

heroes and villains is a universal appeal. Just one reason why Iron

Man 3 is easy to sell in China. market is largely untapped. It's

not over saturated the like some of the traditional markets in the west.

Although the Premier had all of the glitz from Hollywood, China only

allows 34 films from Hollywood each year. Getting through the senses is

tough. Iron Man found success with a Chinese actors and a local

production company and seems made for the Chinese audience. Producers

found a winning combination at the box-office. China is building 10

movie theatres like this one every day. Even with that rapid expansion

there's only one movie screen for every 100,000 people in China

compared to the United States where for everyone movie screen there are

only 8,000 people. There is an immense potential for growth and

one that's very attractive to Hollywood. They need to be in China

and look to develop actors in China. More movie theatres, more

accessible to the consumer and a better experience so the Chinese

consumers will want to go to the theatre rather than by the DVD.

Even with piracy as a big issue in China, Hollywood still profits from

the 1 billion people that want to watch good films with Ward winning

over evil. Staying with China and some preliminary economic data out

in the last few hours suggests factory activity shrank in May for

The figures will raise concerns that the economic recovery is

flagging. John Sudworth is in Shanghai. As the recovery

stagnated? There has been concerned that growth has been slowing in

China for some time. GDP in 2012 came in at 7.8%, well short of

double-digit growth we have seen over the past decade. We are

already seeing as a result of this weakening data, stock markets in

Hong Kong reacted badly to this. It will be seen as further evidence I

think, and if you look into the detail of the figures, the worrying

thing is that of course it reflects the ongoing external headwind that

the difficulties in Europe and North America that will impact the

Chinese exporters. According to HSBC bank, and the survey of

factory strength within China, they say the figures also reflect slower

domestic demand within China and that will be a big worry. That's of

course domestic demand which time is looking to keep growing.

indeed. Many thanks. International Monetary Fund chief Christine

Lagarde will be grilled later by prosecutors investigating a huge

state payout to a disgraced tycoon during her time as French finance

minister. Lagarde will appear before the Court of Justice of the

Republic, which probes cases of ministerial misconduct, to explain

her 2007 handling of a row that resulted in 400 million euros being

paid to Bernard Tapie. Economic figures out later are expected to

show business activity in Europe has continued its decline this

month. Purchasing Managers' Index data for France, Germany and the

Eurozone as a whole may show a slight improvement in manufacturing

and services compared with April, Most of the Asian stocks have