The evening before the HP acquisition was announced… “More than 8,000 3Com calls changed hands on November 11, which is 17 times the four-week average.”
“HP, the world’s biggest technology company by sales, has said it expects to close the deal early in the fiscal second quarter. It has acquired more than 30 companies since 2005.”… Can you say “too big to fail?”
Lots of articles talking about the last quarter numbers but this at least sheds a little light on them (if even so little)
“Four of HP’s major divisions — PCs, servers, software and printers — each reported big revenue declines from last year, a trend HP has responded to buy buying its way into other, more profitable markets.” Seems all is not well to me.
“HP’s services division, which it beefed up last year with the $13.9 billion acquisition of IBM rival Electronic Data Systems , posted better profits.” Notice EDS is key part of positive numbers.
“In the latest period, HP’s PC shipments rose 8 percent, while revenue in the PC division fell 12 percent. The trend has hurt other PC makers as well.” At what cost is HP the number one in PCs?
“Deep cost cuts have accompanied HP’s shift in strategy. HP is eliminating 24,600 jobs as part of the EDS acquisition, and hasn’t addressed whether there will be layoffs at 3Com, which has 5,800 employees worldwide. In May the company announced a separate round of 6,400 cuts involving workers from the product divisions.” How many more jobs will be gone & moved?
“HP buying 3Com isn’t a threat to Cisco. It’s an exercise in diworsification, plain and simple. Make no mistake: HP shareholders will rue the day HP logged on to 3Com.” The author gives Mark Hurd too much credit, but doesn’t think the purchase of 3Com was wise. Comments are accepted.
The writer of the article give’s Mark Hurd too much credit but makes the point that the 3Com purchase will be a big test to Mark Hurd’s success. The article does allow comments.
A vendor is quoted saying ”We should not be lined up by vendors, but by the unique needs of our customers,” he said. “That is who we serve. We have to embrace the notion that our bread is provided by our customers.”
Article says “solution providers that aren’t careful are likely to be stepped on in that bruising battle between the two.”
The Technology Life
