 |
|
HP Pulls Plug on Touchpad, webOSPOSTED August 19, 2011 PALO ALTO -- Hewlett-Packard, the largest company in Silicon Valley, announced a stunning restructuring that includes shutting down its new Touchpad tablet and smartphones, and is exploring the sale of its personal computer division. HP launched the Touchpad on July 1 with hopes of competing against Apple's successful iPad tablet. The Touchpad had the same price as the iPad and used the company's new proprietary webOS operating system that was developed from its acquisition of Palm a year ago. But in over a month, reports said that Best Buy had sold only 25,000 of 270,000 units in the entire chain despite a multi-million dollar advertising campaign featuring Russell Brand and boxer Manny Pacquiao. HP faced competition with its smartphones against Apple's iPhone and Google's Android lineup as well as Microsoft Windows phones and the Blackberry from Research in Motion. The chance for turning a profit against such fierce competitors was slim. HP also announced it would by UK firm Autonomy Corporation for $10 billion in cash. Autonomy's software powers a full spectrum of mission-critical enterprise applications, including pan-enterprise search, customer interaction solutions, information governance, end-to-end eDiscovery, records management, archiving, business process management, web content management, web optimization, rich media management and video and audio analysis. The addition of Autonomy will accelerate HP's ability to deliver on its strategy to offer cloud-based solutions and software that best addresses the changing needs of businesses. "We're focused on improving performance across the business," said Léo Apotheker, HP president and chief executive officer. "HP is taking bold, transformative steps to position the company as a leader in the evolving information economy. Today's announced plan will allow HP to drive creation of long-term shareholder value through a focus on fewer fronts, thereby improving its ability to execute, invest in innovation and drive a higher-margin business mix." The Personal Systems Group of HP is the leading manufacturer of personal computers in the world and had annual revenues of approximately $41 billion in fiscal year 2010. However, the computer division has lower margins and facing increased competition in laptop and PC sales from the use of tablets like the iPad. HP reported net revenue of $32.1 billion for its fiscal third quarter and net earnings for $1.9 billion. The company said its new plan introduced will:
© Copyright SVDaily.com |
|