In what apparently are the worst-ever quarterly loss figures in the over seven-decade history of Hewlett-Packard (HP), the bigwig tech company has reported a mammoth $8.9 billion - or $4.49 per share - loss for its fiscal third quarter.

With HP having reported net income of $1.9 billion, or 93 cents per share, during the same quarter last year, the company has attributed the massive net loss in the mentioned quarter to accounting write-downs from layoffs and the unproductive Electronic Data Systems' acquisition.

While the $13.9 billion purchase of Electronic Data Systems has failed to yield the growth that HP had expected, the company's reported net loss in its fiscal third quarter was also a result of the fact that it took a charge of over $1 billion to cover the May-announced job-cuts which affected 27,000 employees.

Reporting its results on Wednesday, HP said that its revenue for the quarter had witnessed a decline, thanks largely to the weakened sales in all of the company's key business areas. As per the statistics shared by HP, the company's fiscal third quarter revenue plunged 5 percent year-over year to $29.7 percent, from the last year same quarter figures of $31.2 billion.

With HP also reporting a sales plunge in all of its main business units, Bernstein Research analyst AM Sacconaghi said that though HP's fiscal third quarter results were "OK", it is being widely believed that "HP can't grow"; and added that "there are questions about whether they can keep market share."