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[Rumor] HP plans to spin off PC division into a new company. What happens to webOS?

By: David Baxter, 8/18/2011 1:30 pm | 48 comments

Bloomberg is reporting that during today’s earnings announcement HP will also be announcing a few big changes.

HP will be spinning off its PC division into a completely separate entity.
They will be buying the second-largest software company in the UK called Autonomy.

The reasoning, again according to Bloomberg, is that HP does not want to be so dependent on low-end PCs and laptops where growth has essentially stalled out. Instead they are, once again, doubling down on “the cloud” and providing services for it.

This is obviously a massive change for the world’s largest technology company and really shows where CEO Leo Apotheker wants to take the company in the long term. The question is, what happens to webOS?

webOS is currently its own global business unit under Stephen DeWitt, but it has long been associated with the Personal Systems Group (where Ruby now works) which has been in charge of laptops, PCs, etc. Will webOS go with this new company? No way to know.

It is highly possible that webOS will not be affected at all, but either way, HP is going to be a very different company “in the coming months”.

We will report more as we learn it.

Source: Bloomberg

About David Baxter

David is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of webOSroundup. When not toiling away at WOR he is usually with his family, at church, building a website of some kind or another, or playing a video game. @davidbbaxter

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http://Bungie.net TheKingOfHalo

HP buying more stuff; probably not going to do much with it, or does that only apply to webOS?

Hbpinc

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Hewlett-Packard Co. said Thursday afternoon that it plans to discontinue operations for its webOS devices, such as the Pre wireless handsets and TouchPad tablet. H-P HPQ
-6.05%
announced the move in the final hour of trading on Thursday, along with preliminary results for its third fiscal quarter. The company said it will “continue to explore options to optimize the value of webOS software going forward.” The company acquired the webOS mobile operating system when it bought Palm Inc. last April in a deal worth $1.2 billion in cash. The TouchPad went on sale last month to tepid reviews and has seen disappointing sales since the launch, according to various media reports.
Hbpinc

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Hewlett-Packard Co. said Thursday afternoon that it plans to discontinue operations for its webOS devices, such as the Pre wireless handsets and TouchPad tablet. H-P HPQ
-6.05%
announced the move in the final hour of trading on Thursday, along with preliminary results for its third fiscal quarter. The company said it will “continue to explore options to optimize the value of webOS software going forward.” The company acquired the webOS mobile operating system when it bought Palm Inc. last April in a deal worth $1.2 billion in cash. The TouchPad went on sale last month to tepid reviews and has seen disappointing sales since the launch, according to various media reports.

Anonymous

This could be good. Currently the HP brand for consumers, has a bad reputation.
Cptnjarhead

I hope WebOS gets better hardware out of this new restructuring
Cptnjarhead

I hope WebOS gets better hardware out of this new restructuring

Cptnjarhead

…..And a better relationship with customers. I think HP’s bureaucracy is too big for WebOS

Cptnjarhead

I hope WebOS gets better hardware out of this new restructuring
Cptnjarhead

I hope WebOS gets better hardware out of this new restructuring
Anonymous

my guess is that this opens the doors for licensing. HP keeps webOS and licenses to HP-PC who gets the hardware which makes it logical to open up licensing to other companies including other phone manufacturers.
Anonymous

my guess is that this opens the doors for licensing. HP keeps webOS and licenses to HP-PC who gets the hardware which makes it logical to open up licensing to other companies including other phone manufacturers.
Anonymous

my guess is that this opens the doors for licensing. HP keeps webOS and licenses to HP-PC who gets the hardware which makes it logical to open up licensing to other companies including other phone manufacturers.
Anonymous

Wow, so they placed Ruby as VP of innovation of a unit that they are planning to sell off, that’s gotta suck.

Truthtobetold

Ruby fucked up Palm and put it in the ground but he got rewarded by a new job at HP

Truthtobetold

They will be buying the largest company that analyse and process,which means no more risk of innovation just rely on past data where webos has the best track record
It’s
Cptnjarhead

Over @ precentral they have WebOS in the obituaries all ready.

Fango

What does thatmean, move on to windows
Fango

What does thatmean, move on to windows

Cptnjarhead

It means nothing, I think people are speculating or wishing it. I think webos is being integrated into a much larger ecosystem. Phones and tablets are just the beginning

Cptnjarhead

Or not!
Cptnjarhead

Or not!
Mtv757

it means means you are a fanboy spinning the end of webos to something hopefull. Let me ask you where you waiting on august 15th for the slab phone on sprint?

http://profiles.google.com/anayagamingllc Jason Buffalo

Actually Smart move from HP, here is why, first IBM was in the same problem as HP, they had hard time Selling PC and there Servers, so they drop there PC Line and Later the Laptop division to Levono, and concentrated on been a Service Provider with there Software and Servers, HP faces the same problem so those dell, and the way the future is going it will get harder for them, so this is pretty much a sign they are changing ship, so where fit’s WebOS in all of this, well with WebOS been there main Contender for on OS, and it should be easy to integrate with HP Unix, WebOS is staying right there where it is, the question is will this now open up doors for WebOS to be license out to others, or is HP to continue to make Hardware for the Consumer ?.

Hbpinc

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Hewlett-Packard Co. said Thursday afternoon that it plans to discontinue operations for its webOS devices, such as the Pre wireless handsets and TouchPad tablet. H-P HPQ
-6.05%
announced the move in the final hour of trading on Thursday, along with preliminary results for its third fiscal quarter. The company said it will “continue to explore options to optimize the value of webOS software going forward.” The company acquired the webOS mobile operating system when it bought Palm Inc. last April in a deal worth $1.2 billion in cash. The TouchPad went on sale last month to tepid reviews and has seen disappointing sales since the launch, according to various media reports.

http://profiles.google.com/anayagamingllc Jason Buffalo

I hear the News and it’s Official WebOS Devices are Done and Over http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press/2011/110818b.html

But we still have one life line left, called Licensing let’s hope HP those the right thing.

Hbpinc

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Hewlett-Packard Co. said Thursday afternoon that it plans to discontinue operations for its webOS devices, such as the Pre wireless handsets and TouchPad tablet. H-P HPQ
-6.05%
announced the move in the final hour of trading on Thursday, along with preliminary results for its third fiscal quarter. The company said it will “continue to explore options to optimize the value of webOS software going forward.” The company acquired the webOS mobile operating system when it bought Palm Inc. last April in a deal worth $1.2 billion in cash. The TouchPad went on sale last month to tepid reviews and has seen disappointing sales since the launch, according to various media reports.

JMO

Never heard of these “blokes”. However, this can only be a good thing. Just imagine, if you will, WebOs on some kick arse software. One can dream.

http://twitter.com/oak_labs nicholas peterson

what?

Cptnjarhead

I think he ment hardware
Cptnjarhead

I think he ment hardware
Cptnjarhead

I think he ment hardware
Cptnjarhead

I think he ment hardware

Vdefauw

HP has always made crap, can’t see them improving any, too cheap. Now that HP has ruined webOS, HP is off my buying list.
http://twitter.com/ApMik Aploe Miktona

With some luck, if HP keeps the WebOS software, licensing it to those who actually are good at making hardware would be much easier. That would probably be the end of the Pre-x line, as Samsung “Galaxy-web”, Sony “Xperia-W”, and HTC “wildcards” squash the Pre into oblivion.
http://twitter.com/tesla007 Jeff Azevedo

The sunny side is looking dark. Time to be realistic.
Anonymous

its official WEBOS is finished, precentral has it
Hbpinc

H-P discontinues webOS handsets, tabletshttp://www.marketwatch.com/story/h-p-could-expand-software-business-with-autonomy-2011-08-18 SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Hewlett-Packard Co. said Thursday afternoon that it plans to discontinue operations for its webOS devices, such as the Pre wireless handsets and TouchPad tablet. H-P HPQ
-6.05%
announced the move in the final hour of trading on Thursday, along with preliminary results for its third fiscal quarter. The company said it will “continue to explore options to optimize the value of webOS software going forward.” The company acquired the webOS mobile operating system when it bought Palm Inc. last April in a deal worth $1.2 billion in cash. The TouchPad went on sale last month to tepid reviews and has seen disappointing sales since the launch, according to various media reports.
Hbpinc

H-P discontinues webOS handsets, tabletshttp://www.marketwatch.com/story/h-p-could-expand-software-business-with-autonomy-2011-08-18 SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Hewlett-Packard Co. said Thursday afternoon that it plans to discontinue operations for its webOS devices, such as the Pre wireless handsets and TouchPad tablet. H-P HPQ
-6.05%
announced the move in the final hour of trading on Thursday, along with preliminary results for its third fiscal quarter. The company said it will “continue to explore options to optimize the value of webOS software going forward.” The company acquired the webOS mobile operating system when it bought Palm Inc. last April in a deal worth $1.2 billion in cash. The TouchPad went on sale last month to tepid reviews and has seen disappointing sales since the launch, according to various media reports.
Anonymous

Now that HP is closing WebOs seems like a lot of dedicated fans were pretty betrayed.

Cptnjarhead

Yep… The little OS that could.
I still think it’s going to show up on diff hardware though….i hope

Cptnjarhead

What about all the hype from HP? Think big? What is missing from the puzzle?

Anonymous

Now that HP is closing WebOs seems like a lot of dedicated fans were pretty betrayed.
Anonymous

And I bought 2 TPs, what about support??
Truthtobetold

It’s over,webOS was ahead of it’s time ,like the amy winehouse of OSes RIP we will always respect.
Truthtobetold

It’s over,webOS was ahead of it’s time ,like the amy winehouse of OSes RIP we will always respect.
Hbpinc

No help from HP as session winds down
August 18, 2011, 3:30 PM

So much for that nifty afternoon bounce. Just when things can’t possibly get any worse, they do. Especially for those with fortunes tied to Hewlett-Packard HPQ shares.

The PC maker, which may be on its way to NOT being a PC maker, warned with about an hour to go in regular trading that its full-year results probably aren’t going to reach prior targets. In a bull market, that’s bad news. In this market? Absolutely punishing. The stock had actually been one of the rare gainers early on for a brief spell, but after a halt, its down 6%.

In the past year, the shares have lost almost a third of their value.

What’s more, the company confirmed that it might be about to snatch up British software giant Autonomy Corp. UK:AU for a reported $10 billion. H-P also said it would discontinue operations for its webOS-based devices such as the TouchPad and webOS phones.

And the Nasdaq Composite COMP continues its spiral, down 5.6% at 2,371 points, hovering at its lows of the day. Should be an interesting/nauseating push to the closing bell.

– Shawn Langlois
Matt_99_hey

I had the insight to return my TouchPad last week.
Dutch

Just returned mine. And I really enjoyed my two weeks with it.

[Rumor] HP plans to spin off PC division into a new company. What happens to webOS?

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