back to article HP Ink buys Samsung's printer business for a BILLION dollars

HP Inc has agreed to purchase Samsung's printer business for over $1bn, the largest print acquisition in its history. Describing the deal as "accelerating the disruption of the $55bn copier industry" HP Ink expects its acquisition of Samsung's tech will help it replace copiers with "superior" multifunction printer (MFP) …

  1. cd / && rm -rf *
    Unhappy

    It's embrace, extend, extinguish all over again.

    1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

      How come?

      Looks to me like standard market consolidation (boost margins by eliminating a competitor), though the rider that Samsung will be buying equity is interesting. HP has far more IP in the printing sector than Samsung and those 3D printers would fit well with Samsung's industrial processes.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    And tomorrow...

    HP Inc will announce a round of layoffs of most of the Samsung staff.

    After all, that is what MS did to Nokia and what seems to happen right after a takeove where the PHB's tallk about 'synergy' and all that othe claptrap.

    As HP altready share printers with Canon, where's the competition especially for workgroup (and more) printers?

    1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      Re: And tomorrow...

      "As HP altready share printers with Canon, where's the competition especially for workgroup (and more) printers?"

      Brother?

    2. graeme leggett Silver badge

      Re: And tomorrow...

      competition? can't say but I've not had much problem with

      Ricoh (branded as NRG ie Nashuatec/Gestetner etc )

      Kyocera (sold as Utax)

      1. AMBxx Silver badge

        Re: And tomorrow...

        Dell make some pretty decent printers too

        1. Charles 9

          Re: And tomorrow...

          "Dell make some pretty decent printers too"

          I believe most of those are rebadged Lexmarks.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: And tomorrow...

        Samsung are nowhere near the quality of Ricoh, Konica Or Canon for floor standing copiers / MFP. Kyocera maybe ....

        1. earl grey
          Flame

          Re: And tomorrow...

          Bah!. I love me some Samsung printer. Wouldn't trade it for any of the past HP devices.

          1. DonL

            Re: And tomorrow...

            "Wouldn't trade it for any of the past HP devices."

            HP has some nice printers these days with a great price per page, like the HP Pagewide Pro X477DW (very fast/affordable and based on ink) and the HP M880 with futuresmart.

            I agree that their previous offering wasn't that good though.

            1. Alan Brown Silver badge

              Re: And tomorrow...

              "HP has some nice printers these days with a great price per page,"

              Only if you compare those prices with HP printers of the recent past. When we were looking to replace our troublesome CLJ4700s the like-for-like replacements had a 3 times higher operating cost.

              Paying 5 times as much for someone else's hardware was a drop in the bucket compared to the six-figure savings made over the lifetime of the printer.

          2. katrinab Silver badge

            Re: And tomorrow...

            I wasn't too impressed with mine, it lasted about a year of domestic use, about 1 1/2 sets of cartridges, before it required a new fuser unit and transfer belt that cost more than a new printer. I've got a 12 year old Canon inkjet that is still working perfectly, only problem is it doesn't support network printing, airprint and so on.

            1. Hans 1

              Re: And tomorrow...

              >I've got a 12 year old Canon inkjet that is still working perfectly

              Do as I, raspberry pi, plug in, wait 20 seconds, print.

          3. Down not across

            Re: And tomorrow...

            Bah!. I love me some Samsung printer. Wouldn't trade it for any of the past HP devices.

            But you're missing the point. The past ones are fine. Current ones probably less so. Ok they may not be multifunction, but you can pry my various old LaserJets (III, 4, 4700) out of my cold dead hands. They just work. Sure you need to clean or replace rollers occasionally but that's about it.

            And they don't dry out like inkjets. Some Epsons I tried have been pretty much relegated as scanners, although I find myself using old UMAX SCSI scanners via SANE more often than the Epsons.

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: And tomorrow...

              Laserjet 4200 here! Rescued from being chucked into the skip when it was replaced by a newer model.

              Also fitted with a duplexer and have a spare toner cartridge to go with it.

              The amount of printing that I do (letters and CVs) means that it should last a while yet - depending fuser/rollers.

              Printed out a 150+ page user manual for a digital camera for my father a couple of months ago - no problem. Wouldn't want to do that on a little inkjet

            2. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: And tomorrow...

              Agree with you on older Laserjets.

              When I joined company it was using LJ 5L and 6L connected to our instrumentation and a trio of 6MP to print reports. I had to retire the 6MP over time as the heated rollers went (one too many jammed report slips and no money for replacement parts), but the 5L/6L kept going and I've only stopped using them because of a lack of parallel port support on the instruments we are now using.

              1. Charles 9

                Re: And tomorrow...

                I once had L's but gave up on them after acquiring a 5P and having too many issues with the paper feeder. Since P's have EDO SIMM slots it was possible to upgrade them to handle full-page 600dpi graphics, plus since it used a traditional paper feed system, it was much easier to do a manual duplex.

                1. Danny 14

                  Re: And tomorrow...

                  Mono HPs are fine. We have a functioning HP4000 and three 2300s in daily use along with some more modern 401s. Colour printers have been a bag of shite (except the 3525 that ones a trooper) 4600s were rubbish, 2700 was bad, 5525 is possibly the worst of the lot (fundamental design flaw with the transfer belts). We switched to canons for colour and have had no issues (but they are only 18 months old so too early to tell)

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: And tomorrow...

      After all, that is what MS did to Nokia and what seems to happen right after a takeove where the PHB's tallk about 'synergy' and all that othe claptrap.

      No, it's what Microsoft did to the former Nokia cellphone division - not to be confused with Nokia as an entire company.

    4. Montreal Sean

      Re: And tomorrow...

      "As HP altready share printers with Canon, where's the competition especially for workgroup (and more) printers?"

      Lexmark? XEROX?

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Silly question, I know, but ..

    .. has someone actually checked the books? *cough* Autonomy *cough*..

    :)

  4. M7S

    "as few as seven replaceable parts"

    Should we read that as:

    "more reliable" or "greater chance of ending up in landfill as support contracts too expensive"?

    1. Alan Brown Silver badge

      Re: "as few as seven replaceable parts"

      Based on experience with samsung printers:

      Both, but they do tend to last the five years of the support contract.

      Certain other brands have been nothing but trouble *ahem*kyocera*ahem*HP*ahem*

      1. Montreal Sean

        Re: "as few as seven replaceable parts"

        "Certain other brands have been nothing but trouble *ahem*kyocera*ahem*HP*ahem*"

        HP is my favourite printer manufacturer! If it wasn't for them I wouldn't have printers to fix and would be out of a job! :)

  5. thomas k

    HP admitting their own printer are shit?

    How long before Samsung printers become just as bad?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Unhappy

      Re: HP admitting their own printer are shit?

      nah, Samsung's are just cheaper to run. Therefore they need to make them more expensive to bring them in line with their own business model

  6. psychonaut

    I feel a disturbance in the force

    As if a billion Samsung print drivers suddenly expanded to 15 times their optimal size

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I feel a disturbance in the force @psychonaut

      >"As if a billion Samsung print drivers suddenly expanded to 15 times their optimal size"

      No worries, the Samsung drivers are already bloated six ways to Sunday. Samsung download pages are already pure html hell, with no release notes or other vital information available.

      HP has had the Universal PS/PCL drivers for over a decade or so, supporting laser printers dating back to 90s.

      1. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

        Re: I feel a disturbance in the force @psychonaut

        HP has had the Universal PS/PCL drivers for over a decade or so, supporting laser printers dating back to 90s.

        Better download them quick before they get removed in the inevitable cull of operations.

      2. Alan Brown Silver badge

        Re: I feel a disturbance in the force @psychonaut

        "HP has had the Universal PS/PCL drivers for over a decade or so, supporting laser printers dating back to 90s."

        HP's PS interpreter has the interesting feature of only allowing 1024 bytes of PS headers when the standard allows for 4096.

        When the inevitable happens the printers will shit over a few hundred pages if not power cycled.

        I flagged this to HP in 2003 when I discovered it in HP 4100s (which they wouldn't repair) and despite promises made back then to sort it out, that flaw is still there.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    exploding printers

    anyone?

    yes, it's Schadenfreunde allright. After their successful / shameful withdrawal from a digicam market and a few minor fuckaps elsewhere, I wish them all the best in their further explosive growth. Exploding fridge, anyone?

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Goes around comes around

    HP in the eighties was always known as the "Printer Font Cartridge Company" as this was their most lucrative product.

    1. Hans Neeson-Bumpsadese Silver badge

      Re: Goes around comes around

      I remember years ago buying an HP DeskJet (no model number, for it was the only desktop inkjet that they made) purely because of its ability to support plug-in font cartridges. The printer came with Courier installed, and for £££s I got a cartridge to provide Prestige Elite.

      Connected to my amber-screened 8088-toting DOS machine by a parallel cable.

      Happy days

  9. Richard Wharram

    Nooooooo

    Admittedly I don't print much so don't buy the top-of-the-range printers but I've never had a printer I didn't physically hate and fantasise about attacking with shit-smeared power tools until I got my Samsung.

    I am largely indifferent to the Samsung printer which is probably about the best I could hope for.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    That's the equivalent of seven cartridges of coloured ink

    Or half a refill kit for my color laserjet

  11. ColonelClaw

    Here's a fun diversion...

    First look at this photo:

    https://www.3printr.com/file/2016/05/HP-MJF-3D-Drucker.jpg

    ...Guess how big you think it is...

    ...and here's the answer:

    https://575717b777ff8d928c6b-704c46a8034042e4fc898baf7b3e75d9.ssl.cf1.rackcdn.com/9484528_multi-jet-fusion-3d-printer-hp-focused_t4928f92f.png

    1. Charles 9

      I actually called it right. I figured it to be about the size of an office copier (looking at the feet and the touchscreen), and the bottom shot shows I was damn close (a little bigger at most).

    2. Adam 1

      that's amazing

      That dude is tiny!

  12. x 7

    I've always understood that the Samsung lazer printers are rebadged Brothers. So how is that link affected?

  13. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    Why I don't trust HP - reason #72

    Over a year ago my HP Laserjet told me it was low on black ink or toner or something. I thought, sod this, I can't afford to remortgage, so I left it. Every 100 copies it pops up a message telling me that quality will suffer, but I can press OK to be not nagged for 100 copies. So I press OK; there has been no noticeable reduction in print quality. I have not replaced anything.

    This is all true.

    1. mrbawsaq

      Re: Why I don't trust HP - reason #72

      The last HP home office deskjet that I had got a severe beating that it did not survive. The reason - constant out of paper messages and refusals to print when it was full of paper.

      Nothing made by HP will ever cross the threshold of my abode ever again.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Why I don't trust HP - reason #72

      Used to buy HP printers, until the OfficeJet that refused to feed paper.

      Switched to an Epson Workforce, and it's great - even does duplex scanning from ADF.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Facepalm

      Re: Why I don't trust HP - reason #72

      I forgot the brand of printer, but I "fixed" one for a neighbour by checking the manual... after 10,000 prints it refuses to do *anything* until it has had an engineer service it. On looking it up, this meant changing the print head... or just pressing the right combination of buttons to pretend we did, as it was around £200 for a replacement as now out of production and the new model sold for £100.

    4. tekHedd

      Re: Why I don't trust HP - reason #72

      yeah, my nextdoor neighbor has also been pressing OK every few weeks. It's a very silly machine.

      I threw away my inkjet printer because it wouldn't feed paper (except when it fed two pages) and was always either out of ink or clogged. It was hardly used, but I couldn't ethically sell it and I wouldn't give it to my worst enemy.

      That's speaking as a consumer. As an investor... um... somehow I'm not feeling an uncontrollable urge to invest in HP based on this news.

  14. Outcast !!!

    From a HP-er...

    Some of the Samsung printers/cartridges are OEM by HP.

  15. Ian Moyse
    WTF?

    Less Innovation, more renovation!

    Interesting to see HP moving more to hardware with this and its selloff of its software division. As others focus on moving to the new world of cloud, mobile, IOT and more profitable innovative sectors HP decides to move more to the old world and print, a lower margin commodity world with users increasingly printing less and less as they digest content digitally across devices !

    1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      Re: Less Innovation, more renovation!

      "Interesting to see HP moving more to hardware with this and its selloff of its software division."

      You missed the split. There are now two HPs. HPE sold the software division. HP inc, which is the hardware and printer ink business, is the one which made this purchase.

  16. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

    "accelerating the disruption of the $55bn copier industry"

    I think I just threw up in my mouth a little.

    Remember when HP made good printers that would just, you know, work?

    1. Alan Brown Silver badge

      "Remember when HP made good printers that would just, you know, work?"

      I still have a HP GPIB 6-pen plotter somewhere

  17. Dan 55 Silver badge

    Once upon a time HP could do this all on its own...

    HP expects its acquisition of Samsung's tech will help it replace copiers with "superior" multifunction printer (MFP) technology.

  18. nilfs2
    Mushroom

    Can't remember the last time I printed something

    Printing is stupid and primitive

    1. Gene Cash Silver badge

      Re: Can't remember the last time I printed something

      The last thing I printed was some Google Maps directions, as a backup to the cellphone, the TomTom, the road atlas, and the other paper map.

    2. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      Re: Can't remember the last time I printed something

      "Printing is stupid and primitive"

      You are making the common mistake of thinking that everyone else has the same life as yourself.

      I've just been printing the handouts for my wife's sewing class. I don't think taking a laptop & showing round would be as useful. That's just one of the very many use cases that you don't happen to have.

    3. JeffyPoooh
      Pint

      Re: Can't remember the last time I printed something

      I'll stop printing documents for review when my boss springs for a second monitor.

      It's entirely up to him when he'd like to stop spending $20/month on toner, and splash out on the $25 video card needed to connect the second monitor already on hand. It's been in the works for several years.

      Decision Making 101.

      1. Alan Brown Silver badge

        Re: Can't remember the last time I printed something

        "It's entirely up to him when he'd like to stop spending $20/month on toner, and splash out on the $25 video card needed to connect the second monitor already on hand. It's been in the works for several years."

        As has that computer, obviously.

        Just about everything made in the last 5 years can drive 2 monitors without add-in cards and most intel-chipset systems up to 10 years have the capability.

  19. amacater

    HP buys Samsung printers

    Bah - I bought Samsung laser printers because HP printer ink was too expensive. HP used to make really good scanners until everything went MFP. Just give me HP Deskjet 500 / Deskjet 520 quality next time.

  20. ma1010
    Thumb Up

    Once upon a time..

    HP made printers that were just TANKS. The HP III Laser? Where I used to work we had one that did hundreds of thousands of copies and just kept going. We even did double-sided printing (in a single sided printer) by just taking the paper that came out, turning it over and putting it back in the paper tray. (Yes, we had special software that printed the pages in reverse order on the back side.) It worked perfectly and gave very little trouble if you'd just keep it clean.

    Where I work now, we have a bunch of ancient 9040n printers that just keep chugging along doing hundreds of pages a day. They break down once in a while, but occasional, simple repairs heave kept them going year after year.

    Back in the day, HP sure knew how to build great printers.

    1. Alan Brown Silver badge

      Re: Once upon a time..

      " Where I used to work we had one that did hundreds of thousands of copies and just kept going."

      The official lifespan of a 4700 is 1 million prints. We got 2 million out of it, but it was a bit tired by then and the reason it had to do it was due delays caused by bickering about my refusal to buy any more HPs on economic grounds.

  21. Mage Silver badge

    Printing?

    Really important in the 1990s to 2006... now I copy colour photos / images to USB stick to show on laptops / TVs and "print" B&W text and some other stuff to 9.7" Kindle or 6" kindle or 6.8" Kobo.

    Or I make a web page. I replaced the (working) MFP inkjet with a basic colour duplex laser for same price as a set of ink cartridges when we really need paper or card copy.

    1. Dave 126 Silver badge

      Re: Printing?

      Laser at home. For photographs, I use a machine in a high-street chemists - more likely to get good results than a cheaper home inkjet - and if it doesn't print properly, I won't pay for the paper or dye.

  22. kain preacher

    Do these printers catch fire ?

  23. frootus
    Devil

    Over the Cliff

    So, given that Xerox copy (see what I did there) everything HP do, but a year or two later, which company will they take over in the vain hope that tree murder will come back into fashion?

    1. Alan Brown Silver badge

      Re: Over the Cliff

      "which company will they take over "

      A bit late for that, Fuji ate them a while back.

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    President and CEO said "disruption...copier space...innovation..."

    ...

  25. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "That's the equivalent of seven cartridges of coloured ink."

    Well done.

    But the phrase "coloured ink" might confused some folks in the Southern USA.

  26. Chz

    Same old, same old.

    While I admit the SOHO Samsungs that I've used are less crap than the HPs of recent vintage, a full set of colour toner cartridges still costs as much as the actual printer did. What, exactly, is my incentive to not throw it out and get a new one? (In my case, the utter horror at the wastefulness of it and the fact that I was only out of black ink)

  27. HurdImpropriety

    Seat Sensors

    HP will probably install employee seat sensors like they did in the Marlborough, MA facility. Yes they actually did that. Also they will implement Rank and Yank as other companies get rid of that atrocity.

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