Sale of HP’s outsourcing business is not being considered, states OEM.
CRN reports that HP has denied rumours that it has been exploring options to sell its outsourcing business Electronic Data Systems (EDS), which the OEM acquired in 2008 for $13.9 billion (€10.7 billion).
Contradicting rumours that HP had considered selling the business and “put out feelers to potential buyers”, a spokesman from HP said: “HP is not having, nor has it had, discussions about selling its Enterprise Services business […] HP is 100 percent committed to Enterprise Services and will discuss its plans for this business on 3 October at the company’s Securities Analyst Meeting.”
EDS has been described as “probably the one business unit that HP could sell at this point” due to it not being heavily integrated with the rest of the OEM’s businesses, with an anonymous source stating that “private equity would make sense [as a buyer] because they could come in and overhaul the whole thing. There are clients there – EDS is not dead by any means”.
HP recently suffered its highest ever quarterly loss of $9 billion (€6.9 billion) as a result of a reduction in value of its Enterprise Services division, which is anchored by EDS, with an $8 billion charge being made against the company in the second quarter of 2012.