Well, that’s the end of that. HP CEO Meg Whitman says “HP is committed to [Personal Systems Group, HP’s computer arm] , and together we are stronger.” There you have it. HP will keep making computers as usual.
Update: During today’s call to discuss the decision to keep PSG as part of HP proper, new CEO Meg Whitman and her cohorts made the same basic point several different ways: spinning off PCs from HP didn’t make any freaking sense. Or as Whitman put it:
HP and PSG are better together. A separation would not create incremental shareholder return or customer value… At the end of the day the costs and risks of a separation are simply greater than any value we could create.
What this signals on a larger scale is a possible retreat on HP’s part from recently ousted CEO Leo Apotheker’s doomed mission to turn HP into the next IBM.
So you’ve backtracked on the PSG sale, HP. Nicely done! Now on to getting us our our next batch of bargin bin TouchPads. They’re still keeping mum on what the ultimate fate of webOS is, but surely there’s a warehouse stocked with unshipped models, right? Maybe?
In other HP tablet news, the company did confirm that they need to be in the tablet business, and that they’re “going to be there with Windows 8.” [HP]