“HP, which announced a major restructuring including the sale of its PC business last Thursday (see Unable to Beat Apple, HP Takes on IBM With Major Restructuring Plan), has seen its valuation battered to the point where upset shareholders are talking it up as a break-up story or takeover target,” Michael Comeau writes for Minyanville.
“A similar game was played by Research In Motion (RIMM) bulls in late June,” Comeau writes. “So yes folks, HP has officially joined RIM in the largely mythological and mostly money-losing ‘this stock’s so cheap that it has to be a takeover target’ category.”
“That means it’s time to ask the big questions,” Comeau writes. “First we’ll have to put aside the absurdity of break-up rumors for a company that just announced it is breaking up. If a company is trying to sell a division that accounts for 31% of revenues and abandoning its mobile-device business, it’s breaking up.”
Much more in the full article here.
Let’s see if Michael Dell will double down on winning and making it up on volume.
Beleaguered now fittingly applies to HP as well as Dell. Oh how the mighty have fallen thanks to AAPL. 😉
I love cogent observations, especially when using powerful, visual metaphors. “Apple (AAPL) is driving a jackhammer through the skull of the computer industry, and HP is simply wising up and getting out of the way.”
Apologies to Choice Quote.
I posted my comment immediately after reading the original essay and before scrolling down through the other posts.
Wait a second…
HP announces it will get out of the PC business.
HP announces it will get out of the mobile/tablet business.
HP announces it will focus on enterprise services.
HP praises Apple when explaining the reasons for these changes.
Could HP be prepping itself for an Apple takeover?
Perhaps prepping with a personal lubricant….
LOL
Isn’t Apple’s NC data center full of HP servers?
I like your take over prep thinking.
Revenu is not profits. I hate when investors make the mistake of assuming revenue generates profits. Yes HP’s desktop business may account for approximately 1/4 of its revenue, but that doesn’t mean their desktop business is profitable, or healthy for their business. Fact is, HPs primary profit generators are not in the consumers electronics market, but the commercial/corporate markets. It is a shame that they are choosing to wind down their consumer pc business but I for one agree that this is the right choice.
Choice quote from the article: “Apple is driving a jackhammer through the skull of the computer industry.” Nice imagery.
I prefer to think of Apple as Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan, too fast and skillful for the surrounding opponents. Apple is too stylish to be called a jackhammer.
That’s what you use on concrete blocks.
I like your analogy between concrete blocks and blockheads.
I thought HP was an “ink” company!
I find it interesting that The Woz worked at HP when he, Jobs & Wayne started Apple. Part of the startup $$ for Apple came from Woz selling his HP box. Woz actually worked on the grounds of Apple’s new Spaceship when HP had their campus on the property.
Weird
Don’t forget as an HP employee, Woz offered his new computer design, Apple I, to his employer first.