Strong laptop sales have buoyed HP profits
Under-fire Hewlett Packard (HP) was given a break from controversy surrounding the firm, after strong laptop sales boosted its profits.
It made a $1.7bn (£900m) net profit in the three months to the end of October, taking its full financial year profits to $6.2bn on sales of $158bn.
HP is embroiled in a corporate spying scandal which has embarrassed the firm.
The affair has seen its former chairwoman and ethics officer both facing criminal charges.
Ex-chairman Patricia Dunn resigned when it was revealed she had started an internal campaign to find the source of a boardroom leak.
It emerged that private investigators had been employed - obtained the phone records and other data of journalists and HP employees without their permission.
Lucrative
Earlier this year HP overtook Dell to become the biggest seller of personal computers.
And it said that sales in its lucrative printing and imaging business had grown 7% in the last quarter.
Its profits in the three months to October compares with $400m in the same period a year ago - when it faced a one-off $1bn cost linked to job cuts.
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