This morning on an investor call, Hewlett-Packard officially addressed its plans to split into two companies, HP Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise.
The split came as a slight surprise to investors. In 2011 when the company first considered dividing into two companies, CEO and President Meg Whitman said breaking the company up didn't make sense.
"Three years ago we needed to rebuild as one HP," said Whitman in today's call. Now that the company has had time to strengthen, she said, it's ready for the split. Previously, when the company discussed spinning off its personal systems groups, it was without the HP brand name, which according to Whitman would have been a huge "dissynergy."
With the brand problem solved here, Whitman says both new companies will be better able to compete. She envisions the two new HPs as "a lot more nimble, a lot more focused, and being able to better compete."
There was a lot of talk on the call about nimbleness, as well as mergers and acquisitions. "We have worked hard to improve our balance sheet, so we have more flexibility around [mergers and acquisitions] throughout the year," said CFO Cathie Lesjack.
It's clear the two new HPs will be looking to better compete with Oracle, Cisco, and IBM by having a more targeted approach to their products.
As part of the split, HP Inc. will be led by Dion Weisler, currently executive vice president of personal computing systems, and will focus on HP's consumer computers and printers. Though Whitman will stay on as chief of Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, she'll also serve on the board for HP Inc.