HP May Spin Off Consumer PC Business With $10B Software Acquisiti

**Waqas** · August 18, 2011

Hewlett-Packard is planning to spin off its PC business and buy Autonomy, the second largest pure-play software company in Europe, for $10 billion, according to a report.

HP is planning to make the announcement as early as Thursday, Bloomberg reports, citing people familiar with the company’s plans. HP reps could not be reached for comment.

Although HP is credited with introducing the first mass-produced PC in 1968, the Hewlett-Packard 9100A “desktop calculator,” the company didn’t enter the consumer PC market until the mid-1990s. HP solidified its position in the PC market in 2002 with the $25 billion purchase of then-rival Compaq. But in the past couple of years, consumer PC sales have slowed down and have been a drag on growth. And evidence is mounting that sales of HP’s would-be iPad competitor, the TouchPad, are disappointing.

The move would represent a major shift in strategy for HP. Autonomy, a British enterprise software firm known for “meaning-based computing,” dabbles in artificial intelligence and augmented reality.

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