Hewlett-Packard confirmed today that it planned to break into two companies, Quentin Hardy and David Gelles report.
The company, considered a foundational institution of Silicon Valley, said in a news release that it intended to divide itself into a company aimed at business technology, including computer servers and data storage equipment, software and services, and a company that sells personal computers and printers.
Both companies will be publicly traded. The business-oriented company will be called Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, while the PC company will be called HP Inc. and will retain the company’s current logo. The transaction is expected to be completed by October 2015, the end of HP’s fiscal year, the company said.
In a little over a year, stalwarts like Microsoft, IBM and Dell have changed chief executives, sold big parts of their businesses or gone private. All of them, along with a host of other companies that became behemoths during a 20-year boom in personal computing and the Internet, are rushing to cope with the rise in mobile devices connected to cloud systems.
While Meg Whitman, who became HP’s chief executive in 2011, depicted the historic decision as a natural part of her five-year turnaround plan, she had previously resisted the idea of breaking up the company. HP was one of the world’s top buyers of semiconductors and other computer parts, she had argued, giving it pricing power superior to its rivals.
Dividing in two, she said on Monday, “will provide each new company with the independence, focus, financial resources, and flexibility they need to adapt quickly to market and customer dynamics.” This will make HP more competitive, she said. Read more »