back to article HP flip-flops on sale of Personal Systems Group

Meg Whitman, who in September replaced the deposed Leo Apotheker as president and CEO of HP, has decided that “exploring options” for the company’s PC business will not, after all, involve selling the division. Whether in response to indifference to the opportunity to buy its Personal Systems Group, or because it’s decided …

COMMENTS

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  1. HP Cynic

    It's the right decision. Let's hope PSG wins back confidence in the maket after the chaos caused by Apotheker.

    1. A. Coatsworth Silver badge
      Thumb Up

      Not only PSG, but the company as a whole can, and should win some confidence with this announcement.

      So far Withman is doing a decent job tranquilizing the people inside the company, which is the first step for HP to try and recover after this horrible year.

      Many of us were scared sh*tless every time Leo was near a microphone...

    2. Tom 13

      Not just the Apothakare, you've got Fiorna in there too.

      Back when I had just gotten out of college, if it was scientific equipment, HP was THE brand to have: printers, pcs, detectors, lasers, chromatography equipment, or any of a large varieties of 'scopes. They've had a long run of bad management and hope they can turn things around.

  2. Eddy Ito

    From an ex-insider

    Leo was only "thinking aloud" about spinning off the PC division and didn't really have plans or specifics or anything like that.

    I guess one of the (many) problems with Leo was that he didn't understand that a CEO doesn't think aloud, spitball, ad lib, or otherwise make "what if" sound bites in a press conference. For that matter, a the guy who is supposed to set the direction and call the shots shouldn't do such things in public period. Granted saying it in public doesn't imply 5 nines or better reliability as a press conference does but it's still 2 sigma.

  3. Gil Grissum

    Good decision

    This is a good decision. This has raised my confidence in HP. Even if they don't do the fire sale of Touchpads and instead explore selling them with Windows 8 on them, I will consider an HP Windows 8 Tablet when they arrive next year.

  4. CaveCadum
    Flame

    Fire sale - only the ashes left

    You must of missed the the huge bright flame of the fire sale - that happened a long time ago, even in-house they went in minutes..

  5. Mage Silver badge
    Coat

    They really only have two businesses left

    They were never good at Software or Services.

    Their servers are not good value and not as good as they once where.

    They made a mistake with the details of the Tablet, they should have tried again rather than burn it.

    Their PCs and Printers is what is left. But they need to do their own design and improve quality. They need to fix any problems with their PSG, not dispose it and be on a downward spiral to nothing. They'll never emulate IBM's shift of ditching PCs to Lenovo because IBM was major in SW & services before the PC and never left that. HP spun of the the Testgear that was their origin as Agilent and lost the heart of their R&D culture. They have never been good as a SW and Services company. Their origin was HW. Since they are world leader in Printers and PCs that's what they need to concentrate on.

    If they just re-badge other's netbooks and laptops though they are doomed. Nor can they afford to be Apple and concentrate on just Aesthetics and GUIs.

    Mine's the one with an HP calculator in the pocket.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      " They were never good at Software or Services."

      HP made $35 billion revenue last year from the services business (or did you forget about EDS?) Services and enterprise server margins are much higher than those from selling tin and shiney gee-gaws to the masses.

  6. Man Mountain

    It takes a lot of 'balls' by Meg (ironically) to make this decision. The easy (and wrong) decision would have been to press ahead with a spin off / sale and somehow try and make the best of it.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Nope: this was a no-brainer. Stunt-CEO Apotheker was deranged in thinking that there was no value in the PC business - even that Cisco guy was able to score some cheap and easy points by pointing out the tangential benefits of getting kit into enterprises and retail - and reverting his decision conveniently closes the door on that crazy era, lets everyone breathe a sigh of relief, and makes Meg look like a steady hand at the wheel.

      Pressing on with a sale, meanwhile, particularly if they hadn't really followed through - everyone was probably still looking at each other in puzzlement at HP HQ - is just so much more work than business as usual that the endgame would quite probably have been the break-up of HP.

  7. Toastan Buttar
    Boffin

    Headline

    "HP Flip-Flops on sale." I immediately wondered if they were J-K or D-type.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    No real surprise

    HP absolutely should have continues with the sell of the PSG group.

    In a string of bad decisions by Meg and the current HP Board this will be first of many.

    The revenue from PSG was big number however the profit never was. As each quarter went by, the margin keeps shrinking.

    Selling it while the group is still strong similar to what IBM did with Thinkpad would have maximized the value for the HP share holders.

  9. FredScummer
    Paris Hilton

    Thank Goodness!

    I'm pleased that HP has made a decent decision. Them getting out of hardware would never have been a good thing.

    Keep it up Meg!

    Have given Paris a vote as I haven't given her one recently.

  10. Ramazan
    Trollface

    Item: HP Personal Systems Group

    Sale ends in 4 days

    Buy It Now

    or Best Offer

    History: 0 offers

    This listing was ended by the seller because the item is no longer available.

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