back to article Samsung refuses to buy HP's PC business

Samsung made it clear today that it is not interested in buying HP's PC business, despite market rumours to the contrary. Not usually so chatty about such speculations, Samsung released a statement from its chief executive, Choi Gee-Sung, denying any thoughts of picking up the unit, which Hewlett-Packard said last week it may …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Trollface

    Apple ?

    They could buy it and ship Lion on the hardware instead of Windows... instant market share...

    1. Andrew Chalkley

      Profits...

      ...over market share any day

    2. Giles Jones Gold badge

      LOL

      If Apple wanted to ship ugly beige/black boxes then they would.

      It's like saying Rolex should make cheap plastic digital watches.

  2. JEDIDIAH
    Linux

    It's all just silly....

    Samsung doesn't need to buy any part of HP. They can just take up the slack left over by the exit of HP on their own already. Buying an albatros is not really required.

    Buying HP's PC business would not give Samsung anything that they don't already have.

    It's just silly.

    1. Kevin 6
      Joke

      But it would

      It would give them the cheap crappy unreliable PC(at least every HP I've seen) market share, something that Samsung currently doesn't have.

    2. dssf

      Not only that, it would wast them a BOATLOAD of money

      and possibly expose them needlessly to existing docketed litigation and any other BS that hasn't been yet published such as frivolous stuff meant to bog them down and stymie them.

      Also, the "reporters" pushing these ideas probably are self-stroking and jockeying to pull a stunt such as the one that caused Job's succession plans to be forced. If enough outside agitators rile up Samsung's board into a massive, mind-boggling acquisition, it just would put Samsung into disarray, and it might force them to hire or divert 1 or 2 English-competent employees for every 10-20 US-based employees and monitor them, tally their roles, functions, efficiency and more (like the "auditors"/"analysts" of the 99's did when companies sought ways to axe people but not say that that really was coming soon...).

      Companies chomping along with corporate malocclusions learn the hard way, and so will their investors. Samsung can pass on this one. Besides, why would Samsung want to assume all of HP's hardware/computer liabilities and warranties?

  3. Thomas 4
    Unhappy

    Awwwww....

    C'mon, please buy our hopelessly under performing PC business. We'll be your fwiend.....

    1. Matt Bryant Silver badge
      FAIL

      RE: Awwwww....

      Just as the misleading headline is silly, your own post just displays your ignorance. Hp haven't offered to sell the PC bizz, no-one has made an offer for it and hp hasn't asked anyone to pony up either, so the headline should read more like "Samsung denies interest in acquiring hp PC business that hp hasn't offered for sale". As to your ignorance - the hp PC bizz turns over twice the margin and more profit than any of its competitors, so the idea of it "underperfroming" is just wishful thinking on your part. Please try harder, preferrably after doing some market research.

      1. Marvin the Martian
        Facepalm

        @Bryant: Speaking of ignorance,

        HP has indeed said that it'd leave the hardware bizz, so that has been offered for sale. You know, the TouchPad disaster and all that. Oh it's not in this news item so it hasn't happened you say? I'm sorry.

        1. Matt Bryant Silver badge
          FAIL

          RE: @Bryant: Speaking of ignorance,

          I suggest you go read the hp website. In fact, try doing a little research for yourself before falling for the latest Internet FUD:

          "HP today announced that its board of directors has authorized the evaluation of strategic alternatives for its Personal Systems Group (PSG), including the exploration of the separation of its PC business into a separate company through a spin-off or other transaction."

          So, hp is simply LOOKING at whether they should spin-off or sell the PC bizz or keep it in-house, no actual decision either way has been made yet. I'm sorry if that translation still uses too many long words for you to comprehend, but I suspect the problem is not the wording but that you can't see past the idea you want to see most.

      2. This post has been deleted by its author

      3. Allison Park

        Then why so eager to dump it?

        They have priced the unit at $10B so hard to say they are not shopping it around. I still cannot believe they are going to spend $10B for the UK company which translates to $5M per employee.

        MB....Not sure if you saw this yet...but you can't say there are no details on 7+ or 8

        http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh082211-story01.html

        Cheers

    2. Solomon Grundy
      FAIL

      Underperforming?

      The HP PC business makes a lot of good money. It just doesn't generate the margins that software does. HP is making this move to ramp up shareholder value; not to actually increase the value of the company. If HP wanted to make long term moves they'd go back to driving their business through engineering.

  4. Anonymous Dutch Coward

    Most cash-rich company in Asia?

    Inquiring minds want to know: what's the most cash-rich company in Asia then?

  5. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    Mangement buy out .....

    Maybe they could break out the PC business on its own? Perhaps call it something like 'Compaq'?

  6. alexh2o
    Mushroom

    Nokia?

    Don't know why but I think the best purchaser would be Nokia! Seeing as how they are now the number 1 Microsoft partner for mobile devices, they could just become the number Microsoft partner full stop.

    Overnight they would become a near complete consumer electronics supplier and set it all up to release some desirable Nokia designed phones, tablets and PCs to launch with the universal Windows 8.

    Financially, they should have the might to buy the unit, which would instantly start adding some heathly figures to their bottom line, making all those shareholders happy!

    Also it could help in the corporate market to offer a business the full spectrum of devices their employees might need...

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    how the worm turns

    First time I heard of Samsung was in the 1990s when they became the first (only?) company to produce HP RISC workstations under license.

    OK Samsung don't have a PC server biz but given the recent dismal quality of "HP" laptops and lack of after-sales I'd rather have a Samsung machine.

    Unfortunately the old engineering-driven HP is long gone - can't say I care what happens to the "HP" consumer hardware biz.

  8. Nigel 11

    Spin-off the business ...

    and call it Compaq?

  9. Mage Silver badge

    So HP actually make Laptops?

    I thought "desktops" sales now much smaller than Laptop + netbook, and those all outsourced by HP anyway?

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Topping Asia's cash-rich companies...

    China Mobile. Hyundai, Reliance Industries and LG Electronics were also in the top ten.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Obviously apple will buy it...

    .. and then close it down.

    Gain market share by killing the competitors!

  12. Velv
    Joke

    Look and feel

    Samsung won't sell HP PCs since they don't look enough like MacBooks

  13. Rob Dobs
    Holmes

    Samsung Sould buy WebOS Palm Assets, not PC business

    Microsoft could buy the PC business, pull a Google/Motorola and claim to their other vendors like Google did "oh don't worry were doing this to help all of us." Then like Google is so likely to do, keep the business and have an edge over all the other vendors that don't have a lot of choices.

    RedHat would be a good purchaser as well, they could team up with Ubuntu, or put more consumer level work into Fedora and start producing quality PC's built with Linux on them for the consumer market. Ubuntu would really be a better buyer as Redhat is enjoying their rise to power as a enterprise stalwart, but I think they just dont have the $$ to do it.

    In reality, anyone making PC's would be STUPID to buy a competitor, as this is a parts market, and all they would be buying is their customer base, which isn't that valuable of an asset. I see HP spinning this off as a independent, purely to make the Board look good, and increase the profit margins on the balance sheets. However I also predict that people will keep buying PC's for A LONG LONG time to come, and it may be the case that this Idiot Leo Apothoclypse runs the new HighProfit margin HP into the ground, now that their stable cashflow and massive employee base are gone, and you may see the spin-off actually out live the parent company. No one seems to like HP openview, and nagios and other free software are beating the pants off it. Any number of software can grab MIBS for SNMP reporting, and HP's server business is at best a joke. Without the PC powerhouse behind them, their consultancy doesn't look like that attractive of a place to go either. I hear on the radio their printers and ink are just re-badged from other companies (don't know if that's true, but if so people will just go to the original vendor/source for printers and ink as it will be cheaper when the PC/printer deals are tied at the hip.

    1. Aitor 1

      Nagios?

      Really? Really?

      Nagios may be OK for small deplyments.. but for big ones I do prefer HP Openview, or, better still, InfoVista (if properly configured, and for Telco related tasks).

    2. J. Cook Silver badge
      Boffin

      On HP Printers and rebadging...

      HP's earlier printers (most of the models brought out before 2000, IIRC) are based on a canon engine of some form or another (Noteably, the original laserJet was based off the CX engine, the LJII/III series were canon SX, IIIsi and 4si used the NX engine, and the 4/4+/5 series were the EX engines.)

      I'm pretty sure that they are still doing that to some degree, at least on the laser printers. for the inkjet printers, HP did build their own in-house.

      @Rob Dobs: Were you thinking of Dell, by any chance, who typically rebadges Lexmark printers?

  14. davidzzz
    Trollface

    The sweet spot is...

    $99. That pricetag worked quite well for their touchpads, seems to fit their whole PC business also!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      oh yes

      I'm anxiously waiting for the $99 HP server and network switch firesale.

      Now if only Dell followed suit, wouldn't mind a new monitor.

      1. Rob Beard
        Thumb Up

        That would be nice

        For now I'll settle with the £130 HP MicroServer (okay £237 from eBuyer.com with £100 cashback before the end of the month).

        Rob

  15. QrazyQat

    that's what he said

    Choi added "Plus, we're not idiots."

  16. Hollow
    FAIL

    @Velv

    That's a terrible joke on two counts, first HPs current high end laptops, the "Envy" looks considerably like a MacBook, they're just not being sued for the "look and feel" like Samsung are, which brings us to the second count, because the reason is, MacBooks likely outsell the Envy, unlike the iPhone and iPad, which are BEING OUTSOLD by the Galaxy S and Galaxy Tab, and before anyone says that's based on price, you can get either the Galaxy S 2 or the iPhone 4, free on a £15 - £20 a month contract.

    Personally I have nothing much against HP computers, other than their hardware is just not as good as it once was and their corporate printers are a frickin nightmare once they get to be a couple of years old.

    1. Goat Jam
      WTF?

      Galaxy Tab

      outselling ipad?

      Do you care to back up that claim?

  17. PeterM42
    WTF?

    Why would Samsung buy HP cr@p?

    HP servers are well overpriced and not that good, their desktops and laptops - don't go there! Many years ago I abandoned a brand new HP desktop less than 6 months after taking it out of the box in favour of a Dell which is still going strong.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Devil

    here Carly...

    Where's Carly when you need her.....

  19. Rex Alfie Lee
    WTF?

    Minnow versus a whale?

    The whale sold 40 million, yep definitely a whale, the minnow sold 10 million, a minnow? Not bloody likely. Get your comparisons right...

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