HP: The New Services Powerhouse?
HP is aiming to
scoop
up EDS for a cool $14 billion or so. HP is already cleaning up in servers,
and has a sweet PC and laptop business. And no one can touch it in printers.
But today's complex market requires services -- lots of services.
IBM's service business is the biggest and most influential by far. It can help
companies take a top-to-bottom look at its infrastructure and redo the datacenter
with a more flexible and power-saving architecture. HP can do the exact same
thing, but lacks the sheer muscle of the IBM group.
EDS could change all that in a heartbeat. My only concern is in blending the
cultures which, given Ross Perot's legacy -- he may have sold EDS to GM in 1984,
but his influence lingers on -- are very different.
Posted by Doug Barney on May 14, 2008