HP to spin off PC business to focus on enterprise software

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  • Reply 101 of 253
    Getting back to HP's dropping of TouchPad and Phone, this was entirely predictable when they acquired Palm. This is an acquisition I heavily criticized at the time...
  • Reply 102 of 253
    bigpicsbigpics Posts: 1,397member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Suddenly Newton View Post


    It sounds like HP is following IBM in an orderly exit from the hardware business. They're going to do software and services.



    Indeed. And in that sense, it's overdue.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AaronJ View Post


    Does "spin off" mean something along the lines of what IBM did with Lenovo? Or does it means something else entirely?



    Sorry if this is a stupid question.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by cvaldes1831 View Post


    Similar, but not exactly.



    A more accurate comparison would be HP spinning off its testing instruments group as Agilent in 1999. A more recent scenario was Motorola Inc. separating into Motorola Solutions and Motorola Mobility (the former is considered the direct corporate descendant of Motorola, the latter the spinoff).



    Lenovo had existed as a separate company for almost twenty years prior to their purchase of IBM's PC Division in 2005. There was no spinoff, it was a direct transfer from IBM to Lenovo. Same with IBM's exit from the hard drive business; I believe they sold the division to Hitachi.



    This is among other businesses IBM left during their convulsive remake after MS essentially knifed the company that made MS a major company in the back.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by noexpectations View Post


    A Spin Off is the first step for another company to purchase part of your business. So, the million dollar question is, who is going to buy the HP PC Division?



    If a sale rather than a spin-off, another once iconically American industry likely moving more into Asian ownership.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by cvaldes1831 View Post


    In my earlier example, I mentioned HP spinning off Agilent in 1999. Agilent is still a separate corporation and trades publicly on the NYSE under the symbol A. No one acquired Agilent.



    The attractiveness of the spun-off PC unit will be based on several factors, including things like the patent portfolio, transfer rights to the HP brand, etc. My guess is that some Chinese computer company would be most interested in picking up the brand.



    Jup.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Maxseattle View Post


    This sounds like a smart move by HP. Reading the tea leaves over manufacturing PC hardware must be a grim reality these days.



    This is good for Apple. One wonders what a major retraction in large name brand hardware vendors will mean for PC sales in general? When faced with PC brands that are unfamiliar will consumers pause and then go for a Mac instead?



    It couldn't "hoit" Apple - unless a buyer (and as speculated by others and me, likely an Asian company) evolves it into something unexpectedly competitive. But the "truck business" does look to be shaking out rather more dramatically and quickly than many expected when the iPhone was released and then the iPad was thrown into (and decimated) netbook land.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by quinney View Post


    I wonder where the imaging and printing business and enterprise storage and servers business will wind up in the spinoff. Right now services and software are only about one third of HP's business. It would be strange if the company that existed after the spinoff was such a small piece of the current company. And who will replace HPQ in the Dow Jones Industrials?



    I would certainly see HP hanging onto these assets for the time being - particularly the last two.



    The sound of one hand clapping for its latest efforts to stay relevant with WebOS is likely a culminating (but not the original) force driving this major change in direction.



    Another article notes "Apotheker has argued that HP should go more in the direction of his former employer, SAP, and focus more on services and enterprise-level software," but the move (if it happens) is more out of the playbook of another company HP's been long compared to in a number of ways, IBM, which dumped its PC ops - and that move - taken during a dark period in Armonk - has done much to help Big Blue regain its mojo, big mo and modern mission (in its second CENTURY of operation). And hasn't worked out badly for Lenovo to date.



    The part of the personal computing/digital device industry dominated by HP is shrinking - first relatively and at the moment, absolutely. There were fairly high hopes WebOS could establish it as a player in the emerging consumer device markets of the future, but little of the first full 18 months of work on that has gone well at all (as, e.g., in yesterday's stories about Best Buy wanting HP to take back all the TouchPads sitting in BB warehouses even after price cuts and incentives). And probably the straw that broke......



    I personally feel the TouchPad and Pre failues are more a case of failed execution on a number of fronts (e.g., the rushed roll out of the TP with slow, buggy, wanting software - which is the version that got reviewed instead of the 3.02 update which would have made a much better first impression) - rather than a fundamental flaw in WebOS, but in any case, the brand is tarnishing and looks like HP's feeling they better get out while the PC making/marketing asset still has some tangible value.



    Interesting tho', that while killing WebOS devices, they're not making the software part of the property they want to dispose of.
  • Reply 103 of 253
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Suddenly Newton View Post


    It sounds like HP is following IBM in an orderly exit from the hardware business. They're going to do software and services.



    The first time I heard of HP was back in the 1970s - they manufactured electronic testing

    equipment. Bell Labs was a customer then. Have they left that business?
  • Reply 104 of 253
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dick Applebaum View Post


    I read this:



    * HP <hpq.n>-plans to announce that it will discontinue operations for

    webos devices, specifically the touchpad and webos phones

    * HP <hpq.n> says will continue to explore options to optimize the value of

    webos software going forward

    * HP <hpq.n> says authorized the exploration of strategic alternatives for

    its personal systems group

    * HP - to announce its board of directors has authorized the exploration of

    strategic alternatives for its personal systems group

    * HP- will consider range of options that may include,among others,a full

    or partial separation of psg from hp through a spin-off

    * HP -will consider broad range of options that may include full or partial

    separation of psg from hp



    To me, that means that HP wants to Sell or license WebOS



    True that! They probably don't have the heart to flush $1.2 bil down the toilet just yet.

    We live in interesting times indeed, the next phase of technology is mobility, clouds and all that. Just as there was a lot of churning with desktops the same is happening with the mobile devices.
  • Reply 105 of 253
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by digitalclips View Post


    WebOS totally fails in the market as intended but they want to license it to be used to run microwave ovens I bet.



    I agree. GE should buy WebOS as their user interface for all their appliances or for GM to do the same with their cars.
  • Reply 105 of 253
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Maxseattle View Post


    This sounds like a smart move by HP. Reading the tea leaves over manufacturing PC hardware must be a grim reality these days.



    This is good for Apple. One wonders what a major retraction in large name brand hardware vendors will mean for PC sales in general? When faced with PC brands that are unfamiliar will consumers pause and then go for a Mac instead?



    I just wish they hadn't sh*t all over WEbOS before they killed it.



    Seriously. They buy it from Palm, then do absolutely f*ck all with it for over a year. Then the release the same old Palm products but with "HP" on the side, then they completely give up shortly afterwards. It might as well be dipped in dung at this point.



    So sad.
  • Reply 107 of 253
    Oops! I found the answer a few posts down.
  • Reply 108 of 253
    gqbgqb Posts: 1,934member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by rp2011 View Post


    This is bad news for all of us. We need strong competition to drive innovation and competitive pricing. Hopefully the spun off HP can survive and thrive. Or be sold to capable hands.



    Nothing is lost by losing HP as a 'competitor'. Nothing.
  • Reply 109 of 253
    newbeenewbee Posts: 2,055member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by rp2011 View Post


    This is bad news for all of us. We need strong competition to drive innovation and competitive pricing. Hopefully the spun off HP can survive and thrive. Or be sold to capable hands.



    This is good news, not bad. If HP was the strong competitor you seem to want ..... they wouldn't be in the survival mode that they seem to be in now. Competition, for competition's sake, is bad for everyone as it just dilutes the market share for all .... and companies that don't know/forget who they are ..... wind up just chasing $$$$ .... all the way to the bottom. To paraphrase my sig. .... you can focus on making money ... or focus on making satisfied customers ... but only one way works consistantly.
  • Reply 110 of 253
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Commodification View Post


    I agree. GE should buy WebOS as their user interface for all their appliances or for GM to do the same with their cars.



    WebOS's core strengths are multi-tasking and web connectivity. Neither of those is actually necessary for cars and appliances. In fact multi-tasking is definitely contra-indicated for both.
  • Reply 111 of 253
    HP is *NOT* killing WebOS!!! They are just spinning off the hardware side of it!! Nice misleading reporting, AI!
  • Reply 112 of 253
    jd_in_sbjd_in_sb Posts: 1,600member
    As embarrassing as it must be to buy Palm for $1.2 billion, launch the TouchPad, then scrap both - all in just over a year - I respect HP for making the bold move to cut their losses.



    Perhaps they can sell Palm's patents and get a big chunk of that billion back.
  • Reply 113 of 253
    s4mb4s4mb4 Posts: 267member
    Apple's reign will eventually end too. Steve cannot life forever.....
  • Reply 114 of 253
    gqbgqb Posts: 1,934member
    Given Google's backstabbing of their 'partners' in buying Moto, I think its pretty likely that Samsung, LG, HTC, or some other Android maker will pick up WebOS.

    Given the need for a plan B, that makes WebOS quite valuable. They're not going to just toss it away.
  • Reply 115 of 253
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by rp2011 View Post


    This is bad news for all of us. We need strong competition to drive innovation and competitive pricing. Hopefully the spun off HP can survive and thrive. Or be sold to capable hands.



    There IS strong competition driving innovation and competitive pricing: Apple. (And yes, pricing is competitive; just ask Apple's competitors who are struggling to match Apple's bill of materials on computers like the MacBook Air and iPad).
  • Reply 116 of 253
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by jragosta View Post


    Yes. Again, it is important to separate the process (spin-off) from the result. A spin-off can end up with lots of different results. That said, it is more difficult to use a spin-off to go private. You have to be careful that you're not taking equity out of the shareholders' hands and putting it in the ownership of a different entity.



    This old brain is trying remember a specific example... I am sure there are some. Possibly, it was when Jimmy Ling was printing money in the 1960s, and taking over major corporations 3 time the size, splitting them into pieces, spinning off the pieces... then doing it all over again.



    It may have the premium beverage company that sold itself to Quaker Oats... then reconstituted itself several years later...





    But, when you think of it, we should have seen drastic action coming from HP. They have a new CEO with carte blanche -- but a limited amount of time. He just terminated a lot of problems that were not created on his watch -- but he would have owned them in a few more quarters.



    Iococca, Gurstner, Elop took similar actions -- as did one Steve Jobs.
  • Reply 117 of 253
    gqbgqb Posts: 1,934member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by libertyforall View Post


    HP is *NOT* killing WebOS!!! They are just spinning off the hardware side of it!! Nice misleading reporting, AI!



    And they would keep WebOS without hardware to put it on... because?
  • Reply 118 of 253
    This is why you shouldnt buy HP products... They put something out then let it die quickly. I gave up on them years ago.
  • Reply 119 of 253
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Commodification View Post


    I agree. GE should buy WebOS as their user interface for all their appliances or for GM to do the same with their cars.



    My point was that iOS would be even better for that. At least it would be the main stream mobile OS and would integrate.
  • Reply 120 of 253
    melgrossmelgross Posts: 33,510member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by island hermit View Post


    All the publications are not reporting that it is dead. Read what they are saying. HP is keeping WebOS alive but they are killing all devices that use it. (... and, yes, in any sane person's mind that is just as good as dead, but it is not what HP is saying... WebOS lives...).



    No one knows what HP might now do with WebOS. It's obvious that their plans of putting it into every HP PC is dead. With that dead, and phones and tablets dead, to all intents and purposes, it's dead.



    Life as an embedded OS will be very different, and doesn't really count, because the WebOS everyone knows will be almost unrecognizable as an embedded OS.



    This is its farewell, as no other manufacturer will now touch it.
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