Free of software boat anchor and chain around its neck, HPE sees profits inch upward HPE is showing signs that its turnaround is picking up, as the enterprise IT giant raised its revenues – and on Tuesday talked up a future without its software business. For the three months to July 31, HPE's third quarter of the 2017 fiscal year is as follows: Revenues of $8.2bn were up 3 per cent from Q3 2016. This was …
Running a successful software business is a supreme test of practical intelligence. The potential added value of software is immense - after all, hardware does literally nothing but run software, so without software it is nothing but a bunch of rather large doorstops and boat anchors.
So the question whether a given corporation can make money out of selling the useful part of computers is a bit pointed. Obviously, HP cannot. It is in good company, however; only a tiny fraction of those who set out to sell software succeed in the long run (i.e. over 8-10 years).
Agreed, however, this comment gives a hint at the problem:
"The now spun-off Software group reported $718m in revenue, down three per cent year-over-year. HPE notes that without Software, the corp as a whole would have grown revenues by six per cent instead of the three per cent it reported."
Obviously, it is more important to have a large percentage growth in revenues to shout about - don't worry about the actual numbers, or actually comparing like-with-like just look at the headline percentage revenue growth...
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
