HP split into two companies is now official

Hewlett-Packard officially split into two separate companies effective November 1, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and HP Inc. Hewlett Packard Enterprise will focus on infrastructure and services for the enterprise market; HP Inc focuses more on consumer issues, such as printers.

Both companies will be about the same size and should have a clearer focus. In total, some 55,000 people will lose their jobs at the split, the majority of whom have already been laid off. The company announced the split just over a year ago, on October 6, 2014. Its business arm, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, has Meg Whitman, former CEO of “old” HP, at the helm; the HP Inc branch has Dion Weisler as its new CEO.

The business and consumer segments are expected to generate annual revenues of around $50 billion each. The reason HP took this step is that after its purchase of Compaq in 2002 for $25 billion, the company continued to slide. The CEO who made the move to acquire Compaq is Carly Fiorina. She is now in the running for Republican presidential nomination.

The cost of the split is estimated at about $2.7 billion. Some 33,000 people have already lost their jobs during the splitting process.