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back to article 'Conscious uncoupling' of HP 'Ink', HP Enterprise: It's the shareholders, stupid

Just a few weeks ago, anyone would have said that HP CEO Meg Whitman was seemingly cast from the same mould as former Brit politician Mrs Thatcher: the lady was not for turning. That perception of the CEO, who has told people for years that she planned to keep the PC and printer division part of the group because "we are …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Reasons for the split?

    Two troughs for Meg and her clones to stick their snouts into.

    As someone who is about to get their HP Pension, I have no confidence in the two parts even coming close to being what the single bit is now.

    Going downhill rapidly. Those brown marks are not the Sauce.

    5 0 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: snouts into...

      You mean like

      Organise a merger... award senior managers a big bonus

      Organise a split... award senior managers a big bonus

      repeat until retirement

      2 0 Reply
    2. circusmole
      Reply Icon
      Unhappy

      Pension

      If I was just about to get my pension from the "old" HP I would be asking what will happen to my pension when there are two "new" HPs?

      Judging on HPs history of screwing its potential pensioners I would be extremely nervous and start asking questions now.

      1 0 Reply
  2. Jay108

    More bad HP news

    HP has to wrestle with a lot.

    Poor decision making, ineffective management, malpractice, incompetence, no ability to command, poor judgement and oversight. Threatening their own suppliers and partners.

    Sadly it seems to be another (final) nail in the coffin for a once great company. It raises questions on whether or not the quality of their products will drop or if the products will exist or be supported at all in future for either section. Think this will probably mean we'll drop HP kit all together, they keep on changing their minds about things and I don't think they'll change that any time soon.

    Titanic comes to mind. That split into two pieces too. Shame with a better more decisive captain at the helm it could of been soo much better.

    “At ground level, in the last five or six months HP has been pushing hard on this. HP told us it is back, and the PC and Enterprise Group are collaborating”. Yeah same, it's what they told us last week.

    1 0 Reply
    1. Fatman
      Reply Icon

      Re: More bad HP news

      Sadly it seems to be another (final) nail in the coffin for a once great company. It raises questions on whether or not the quality of their products will drop or if the products will exist or be supported at all in future for either section. Think this will probably mean we'll drop HP kit all together, they keep on changing their minds about things and I don't think they'll change that any time soon.

      BTDT, HP has been on our do not buy list for some time; and it is not likely to be removed in the near future. This announcement does not change that decision one bit.

      1 0 Reply
  3. Terafirma-NZ

    please tell me how this works....

    If you take one company and split it change nothing keep the same people and processes how does this make both better? All I see is each company suddenly taking on more staff to cover previous cross over jobs.

    Today each side has its own reporting lines and that will be the same so it might be me but I don't see how this will help the company at all. If anything partners are now able to swap one half of the HP product portfolio for a different supplier with ease.

    HP is failing because its processes are failing its become too top heavy and slow to move. These are easy things to fix with structure and culture they take hard work and time but there is no reason HP cannot be run the same way a new start-up runs. Get the company focused drop product lines and innovate a core road-map.

    What they should do is sell of all the extra bits that drag them back. Oh and stop spending money on court cases and get back to work.

    1 0 Reply
    1. Fatman
      Reply Icon
      Unhappy

      Re: please tell me how this works....

      There is this train of thought that when multiple operating divisions compete for the limited available "capital resources", someone gets the shaft. And by "capital resources", I am referring to the funding of R&D, product development, marketing, etc. One operating division may be propping up some of the others, leading to executive resentment. ("I am sick and tired of supporting Joe Blow's divisions' losses" mentality.)

      By splitting the company into two, each is responsible for only itself. But, your points about staff and manglement are quite spot on.

      0 0 Reply
    2. Archaon
      Reply Icon

      Re: please tell me how this works....

      "If anything partners are now able to swap one half of the HP product portfolio for a different supplier with ease."

      We can (and do) do that anyway. There may be favoured brands but not many channel partners are one-brand ponies.

      1 0 Reply
    3. earl grey
      Reply Icon
      Mushroom

      Re: please tell me how this works....

      "suddenly taking on more staff"

      Any yet they've announced a 5K head-chopping to go along with this split. Maybe they'll offer to hire back all those bodies at a new lesser pay scale without pension and other benefits.

      1 0 Reply
  4. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge

    Getting psychotic yet?

    Whitman has worked 18 hour days since taking the CEO’s office at HP

    Just what.

    1 0 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Getting psychotic yet?

      Either presenteeism ("look how hard I'm working!!!!!")

      or

      Not capable of doing the job

      or

      They need to hire a 2nd person as there is too much work to do

      Either way, I wouldn't brag - when they are off with stress, what happens then?

      1 0 Reply
    2. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Getting psychotic yet?

      "Whitman has worked 18 hour days since taking the CEO’s office at HP

      Just what."

      Presumably she has to personally approve every individual travel request and every individual expense claim and every indivudual purchase order and... These things take time.

      1 0 Reply
  5. Alex 71

    I was kind of hoping...

    ... that they will split to "H" and "P".

    2 0 Reply
    1. Gordon 10
      Reply Icon
      Joke

      Re: I was kind of hoping...

      H'enterprise and Printers?

      3 1 Reply
  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    HP Ink

    Do they seriously believe that anyone anywhere will seriously believe the new company is called "HP Inc"

    Have they no imagination?

    1 0 Reply
    1. Archaon
      Reply Icon
      Trollface

      Re: HP Ink

      "Have they no imagination?"

      Have they enough nonce to realise what they've done with the name?

      I suspect we'll end up with HP and HP both attempting to pose as the same brand, so I would not be at all surprised to find out that we end up with HP Inc and HP Plc or some nonsense.

      That said my vote is for HP to become a holding company containing HP Inc and HP Plc. Why create 2 companies when you can create 3 and put them into a nice cuddly group. The more the merrier, after all.

      2 0 Reply

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