HP splits the company again.

[Stonent]

I saw this morning that HP has split again.  HP.com and HPE.com  HP is computers and printers, and HPE is the enterprise business.
Meg Whitman is now the CEO of HPE.

If its one thing they know how to do it's spinning itself off.

[nctnico]

The first sign of some kind of merger. Perhaps IBM will buy the enterprise business?

[Stonent]

The first sign of some kind of merger. Perhaps IBM will buy the enterprise business?

Well they bought EDS back in 2008, and now it sounds like they're just renaming it and spinning it off again.

[TerraHertz]

What the hell does "enterprise business" mean anyway? Besides being a shining example of redundant terminology new-speak.
If they can't even bring themselves to say "test equipment manufacturer" then there's little hope for them.

[tggzzz]

What the hell does "enterprise business" mean anyway? Besides being a shining example of redundant terminology new-speak.

It means selling large software and hardware packages to large companies. The software packages are so large that the newly-minted software "engineers" (and I use that word loosely) only have surface knowledge of how to use it, don't understand the fundamental limitations in its operation (e.g. byzantine generals and dining philosophers problems), and believe what the salesman tell them about it "just working".

The people that specify and authorise such purchases haven't got a clue about technology, but do like to go to sporting events and the opera.

And the "maintenance and enhancement" contracts are far more lucrative than the initial purchase.

If they can't even bring themselves to say "test equipment manufacturer" then there's little hope for them.

You are 15+ years out of date. The (now old) aphorism was that "HP is alive and well and is called Agilent" - which now has to be updated to "Keysight", of course.

[tszaboo]

What the hell does "enterprise business" mean anyway? Besides being a shining example of redundant terminology new-speak.
If they can't even bring themselves to say "test equipment manufacturer" then there's little hope for them.

According to google translator, enterprse is "a business or company".
So "enterprise business" is is "business business". Synergy.
On the other hand i think it has to do more with spaceships with phasers.

[coppice]

What the hell does "enterprise business" mean anyway?.

Its a term they use to make the shareholders think they are buying a piece of Star Trek.

[Halcyon]

Synergy.

Don't even! I bet you that word already exists somewhere in some bollocks mission statement or report.

[daqq]

<COMPANY NAME HERE> splits the company again.

I guess it's that time of the week.

[nanofrog]

<COMPANY NAME HERE> splits the company again.

I guess it's that time of the week.

They have to appear to earn their overly large compensation packages somehow...     

[Kevman]

HP has a ton of software they sell to large businesses, such as Quality Center (oh look, a 'web application' that only runs in IE requires Admin rights to INSTALL...), Service Center and Arcsight.

http://www8.hp.com/us/en/software-solutions/enterprise-software-products-a-z.html?view=list

I assume that's what they mean by Enterprise business. There's big money to be had in that kind of stuff.

Think about all the things HP bet big on a lot of things and lost. Itanium, commodity hardware, Palm, Autonomy, etc. They must turn insane profit somewhere to let them keep wasting billions of stuff that never will. If they spin the profit center off into a separate company what's going to happen?

[tggzzz]

<COMPANY NAME HERE> splits the company again.

I guess it's that time of the week.

It happens whenever there is no "organic" growth to be made, and execs have to resort to mergers and acquisitions in order to get their bonuses (by generating the appearance of growth).

It is usually a sign of out-of-touch execs. When it happens near you, look for the escape route.

[German_EE]

Never mind,  we can remember the days when Hewlett Packard was a company run by engineers and pushing products like the HP65 Calculator and the HP8640 Signal Generator out of the door.

Agilent? What's that?

[zapta]

I saw this morning that HP has split again.  HP.com and HPE.com  HP is computers and printers, and HPE is the enterprise business.
Meg Whitman is now the CEO of HPE.

Looks very reasonable to me. Very different markets.

The hp.com site has this interesting page on 3D printing. May be their next big thing.

http://www8.hp.com/us/en/commercial-printers/floater/3Dprinting.html

[helius]

They must turn insane profit somewhere to let them keep wasting billions of stuff that never will. If they spin the profit center off into a separate company what's going to happen?

Ever used an inkjet printer? The ink cartridges cost $30 each, contain less than an ounce of ink, and might print 100 pages if you are really lucky. If you have a more casual rate of printing you could only get half that, with evaporation and "cleaning cycles". They even package a convenient pre-paid mailer for recycling the cartridges once you've used them up! How thoughtful! Now they can fill them with .5oz of ink again for another $30!

If HP designs a 3D printer, you know how it's going to work.

[tggzzz]

They must turn insane profit somewhere to let them keep wasting billions of stuff that never will. If they spin the profit center off into a separate company what's going to happen?

Ever used an inkjet printer? The ink cartridges cost $30 each, contain less than an ounce of ink, and might print 100 pages if you are really lucky. If you have a more casual rate of printing you could only get half that, with evaporation and "cleaning cycles". They even package a convenient pre-paid mailer for recycling the cartridges once you've used them up! How thoughtful! Now they can fill them with .5oz of ink again for another $30!

If HP designs a 3D printer, you know how it's going to work.

HP does a whole range of ink printers, with a whole range of in prices. Yes, some of the printers follow the "razor blades" model, but many don't - in particular the commercial ones.

HP has said it will enter the commercial bureaux 3D printing market, and hasn't said anything about home "razor blade" markets.

[SeanB]

Commercial printers at the low volume end ( the biggest part of the market, the printer doing under 5000 pages a month) are very profitable, as the cartridge generally will do under 2000 pages. They also state in the small print the "new" part you just bought at full price might in actual fact be a refurbished cartridge from this program. I just have them refilled locally, which is around 30% of the wholesale cost ( or 20% of the retail cost) of the cartridge.

They also have a large profit from leasing the mid range printers and multifunction devices, where they use a refilled cartridge exclusively, though they do it themselves, and where they charge per page and per month for the machines. They rely on the design being such that the machines will give almost zero troubles (aside from user caused ones, which are charged for) for the lease period, and the machine pays off it's cost in the first year of the lease.

[Kevman]

I just looked up their fastest printer- the Indigo W7250. It'll do 16 pages a second in black and white. So they must have some decent engineers left. I wonder what happens when it jams.

I think it uses rolls of paper, though, rather than pages.

[tggzzz]

I just looked up their fastest printer- the Indigo W7250. It'll do 16 pages a second in black and white. So they must have some decent engineers left. I wonder what happens when it jams.

I think it uses rolls of paper, though, rather than pages.

The indigo technology wasn't developed within HP; IIRC they puchased the company around 2000.

[TerraHertz]

What the hell does "enterprise business" mean anyway? Besides being a shining example of redundant terminology new-speak.
If they can't even bring themselves to say "test equipment manufacturer" then there's little hope for them.

According to google translator, enterprse is "a business or company".
So "enterprise business" is is "business business".

That's what I was referring to as 'redundant terminology'.
It's even better than Microsoft's "NT Technology". (The 'NT' stood for New Technology'. Until they claimed it didn't anymore, but that was just because otherwise they'd look stupid.)

[zapta]

That's what I was referring to as 'redundant terminology'.
It's even better than Microsoft's "NT Technology". (The 'NT' stood for New Technology'. Until they claimed it didn't anymore, but that was just because otherwise they'd look stupid.)

Or JEB Bush (the B stands for Bush, like JFK Kennedy)

[Bassman59]

I saw this morning that HP has split again.  HP.com and HPE.com  HP is computers and printers, and HPE is the enterprise business.
Meg Whitman is now the CEO of HPE.

If its one thing they know how to do it's spinning itself off.

HPE opened at 16, now it's at 13.66.