Hewlett-Packard splitting into two companies, one will focus on consumer PCs & printers

Posted:
in General Discussion edited October 2014
Personal computing pioneer Hewlett-Packard announced on Monday that it plans to split into two publicly traded Fortune 50 companies: one that will focus on enterprise technology and services, and another that will offer consumer-focused products and printers.




The two companies will be identified as Hewlett-Packard Enterprise and HP Inc. The transition is expected to be completed by the end of the company's fiscal 2015.

Hewlett-Packard Enterprise will offer servers, storage, networking, converged systems, services and software, along with its OpenStack Helion cloud platform. The company will be overseen by current HP CEO Meg Whitman.

HP Inc., meanwhile, will focus on personal systems and printing. It's also focused on the future of the 3D printing industry, as well as "new computing experiences." HP Inc. will be overseen by CEO Dion Weisler, while Meg Whitman will be chairman of the board.
Before he founded Apple, Steve Jobs was given a summer internship at Hewlett-Packard.
HP has a long history with Apple, beginning when late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was given a summer internship as a teenager by HP's Bill Hewlett. Apple's forthcoming Campus 2 "spaceship" headquarters will also reside on land that was previously HP's corporate campus.

The Silicon Valley shakeup is part of a five-year turnaround plan for HP, which has floundered in the so-called "post-PC era" brought about by industry leaders like Apple. In particular, Apple's iPhone and iPad, along with Google's Android platform, have disrupted the traditional Windows PC market, and HP has struggled to respond.

The decision to split into two companies comes three years after HP publicly said it was looking to spin off its PC business and exit the consumer space. But the company quickly changed CEOs and changed its mind, opting instead to keep its Personal Systems Group that builds PCs intact.

HP is said to currently be in talks with Google and Microsoft to offer a type of "Enterprise Siri," allowing corporate customers to search their document and data troves using their voice. The discussions are said to be ongoing after the company held talks with Apple, but those negotiations are said to have broken off unsuccessfully.

HP is also said to have pitched an enterprise-focused Android "Nexus" handset with military-specification encryption hardware, but the proposal was reportedly rebuffed by Google.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 67
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    I sense vast layoffs coming. Too bad for ole H-P.
  • Reply 2 of 67
    Other than for garden variety 'restructuring' moves such as layoffs, divestitures, and split-offs -- which any uninspired CEO could do -- what exactly has Ms. Whitman achieved since 2012? In other words, what are the new product or service innovations, if any, at HP? Have they moved the needle? Will they?

    I heard her on CNBC this morning, and I am sorry to say, the CEO sounded like a grab-bag of business cliches.
  • Reply 3 of 67
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post



    The decision to split into two companies comes three years after HP publicly said it was looking to spin off its PC business and exit the consumer space. But the company quickly changed CEOs and changed its mind, opting instead to keep its Personal Systems Group that builds PCs intact.

     

    Sure... why not keep the consumer space... this way you can watch it go into bankruptcy.

  • Reply 4 of 67
    I really hope this will improve 'HP' printer driver support. It's awful.
  • Reply 5 of 67
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    Other than for garden variety 'restructuring' moves such as layoffs, divestitures, and split-offs -- which any uninspired CEO could do -- what exactly has Ms. Whitman achieved since 2012? In other words, what are the new product or service innovations, if any, at HP? Have they moved the needle? Will they?

    I heard her on CNBC this morning, and I am sorry to say, the CEO sounded like a grab-bag of business cliches.

    Something like 11,000 laid off so far, with another 500 anticipated. They can't win solely through layoffs.
  • Reply 6 of 67
    malaxmalax Posts: 1,598member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post



    Personal computing pioneer Hewlett-Packard announced on Monday that it plans to split into two publicly traded Fortune 50 companies: 

     

     

    I doubt this part.  HP's revenue (according to the Fortune 500 listing) is currently at $112B and they are 17th on the list.  The companies down at number 50 (UPS is #50) have revenue of 55B.  So unless they cut this company in half with a laser-guided scalpel, one of the 2 new companies will fall outside the top 50.  Not that it matters, it's just a meaningless label.  But HP won't have 2 companies in the top 50.  And in a year or 2 they might have zero.

  • Reply 7 of 67
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    Something like 11,000 laid off so far, with another 500 anticipated. They can't win solely through layoffs.

    I heard the total layoff number would be around 55,000. Of course, like Microsoft, HP is extremely bloated so reducing the workforce is probably a good thing. Personally I think HP went in the toilet when Fiorina decided to acquire Compaq.
  • Reply 8 of 67
    malaxmalax Posts: 1,598member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post



    The decision to split into two companies comes three years after HP publicly said it was looking to spin off its PC business and exit the consumer space. But the company quickly changed CEOs and changed its mind, opting instead to keep its Personal Systems Group that builds PCs intact.

     

    So in other words, it took them 3 years to figure out that the plan they scuttled was more or less their best option.  Never mind.

  • Reply 9 of 67
    jungmarkjungmark Posts: 6,926member
    Oh good. I won't feel bad about selling HP inc stock when finalized.
  • Reply 10 of 67

    Failed Republican candidate, Meg Whitman is famous for stripping companies of their assets, laying off employees, collecting her check and moving on like a locust.

     

    She's Mitt Romney in a skirt suit.

     

    I sense her payoff is coming...

  • Reply 11 of 67
    Quote:


    Personal computing pioneer Hewlett-Packard announced on Monday...


     

    In what way is HP a "personal computing pioneer"? AFAIK, they were a good printer company, and before that they made excellent handheld calculators, and before that they were bigwigs in mainframe computing.  But in the PC world, they were just another clone maker, running a GUI ripped off from Macintosh, right?

  • Reply 12 of 67
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by AppleZilla View Post

     

    Failed Republican candidate, Meg Whitman is famous for stripping companies of their assets, laying off employees, collecting her check and moving on like a locust.


     

    Don't forget, she's the one who bought PayPal for Ebay.  Which is now being dissected away.  Yeah, she makes lasting contributions.  

     

    /s.

  • Reply 13 of 67
    malaxmalax Posts: 1,598member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by TeaEarleGreyHot View Post

     

     

    In what way is HP a "personal computing pioneer"? AFAIK, they were a good printer company, and before that they made excellent handheld calculators, and before that they were bigwigs in mainframe computing.  But in the PC world, they were just another clone maker, running a GUI ripped off from Macintosh, right?


    I think you nailed it.

  • Reply 14 of 67
    malaxmalax Posts: 1,598member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by TeaEarleGreyHot View Post

     

     

    Don't forget, she's the one who bought PayPal for Ebay.  Which is now being dissected away.  Yeah, she makes lasting contributions.  

     

    /s.


    EBay isn't spinning off PayPal because it's a loser.  If anything EBay recognizes that the EBay brand and business model are holding back PayPal. If Meg is responsible for the original acquisition that's goes in her Plus column.  

  • Reply 15 of 67
    maestro64maestro64 Posts: 5,043member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by TeaEarleGreyHot View Post

     

     

    In what way is HP a "personal computing pioneer"? AFAIK, they were a good printer company, and before that they made excellent handheld calculators, and before that they were bigwigs in mainframe computing.  But in the PC world, they were just another clone maker, running a GUI ripped off from Macintosh, right?


    Actually HP made they claim to Fame in Test Equipment. There was not a single High Tech Product in the last 50 Yrs that did not use some sort of HP test equipment (Known today as Agilent) Also HP did not do Mainframes they did Mini's and was heavy in the PC or the test and measurement works and printers was another claim to fame for them. 

     

    At this point, it is time to put a fork in since it is done. This is no different than what happen to Motorola. Motorola's was known for two way radios and that business is till alive today since it was split off when the mobile guys. HP got rid of the test equipment over 10 yrs ago and they still doing okay today. What is left which is printer computers and servers is no longer relevant. No one is buying old iron workhorse severs, they doing like google finding someone to slap some PC boards, power supplies and HDD together as cheap as they can and when the fail they toss them out.

  • Reply 16 of 67
    65026502 Posts: 380member
    I wonder what will cost more: a share of HP Inc. or a cartridge of HP Ink.
  • Reply 17 of 67
    applezilla wrote: »
    Failed Republican candidate, Meg Whitman is famous for stripping companies of their assets, laying off employees, collecting her check and moving on like a locust.

    She's Mitt Romney in a skirt suit.

    I sense her payoff is coming...

    I think she would've been a better California governor than Jerry Brown, to be blunt.
  • Reply 18 of 67
    Who didn't see that coming!
    HP has burnt out! Same thing happened to Palm.
    Split, boom and gone.
    Publicly traded companies are driven into the ground for profits. Eventually they are whored so deeply they are broken apart and sold for scraps.
    This is the beggining of the end for HP.
    The company is surviving off of MS powered pcs and servers on one end and over priced ink and cheap printers on the other.
    What a disgrace!!!!
  • Reply 19 of 67
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    Speaking of HP, their old HQ which is now Apple's future HQ has the foundation laid. I'm hoping [@]Corrections[/@] will get us more ariel video shots. Perhaps an iPhone 6 Plus with stabilization mounted on a personal drone.
  • Reply 20 of 67
    Meg Whitman has once again failed in her mission. How does this woman keep getting top positions? The decision to break up is an outright admission of failure. This needs to be done or the whole thing and any shareholder value goes down the toilet. By doing this she gets to keep sucking down a big fat compensation plan as CEO of one business and probably some juicy stock grants as non-executive chairman of the other business. She also avoids Icahn, Akerman, Loeb or one of those guys coming after the company to break it up (unless they are already secretly behind this move) and make the underlying value liquid. Her ego doesn't take the public hit it would if those guys humiliated her and dragged her, deservingly, through the mud. She is rumored to be worth over $1 billion which is evidence of a smart woman who knows how to pump something up, make a killing for herself and then get out before the roof falls in on everyone she left behind.
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