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HP Seals the Deal, Buys EDS For $14B
netbuzz writes "Following yesterday's spate of heated rumors, the announcement comes this morning that HP has completed a deal to buy EDS for just under $14 billion. The acquisition has been approved by the boards of both companies, according to HP. EDS CEO Ron Rittenmeyer has issued an e-mail to his employees promising that the company brand will continue and, "We are — and will remain — EDS."
I wonder if Digital's and Compaq's CEO's sent out a similar e-mail when they got bought out by HP :)
Look at the bright point, guys... at least you didn't get bought out by IBM. They would have completely turned the business on it's head in a manner of months!
As an HP employee I hope HP is smarter than GM was. Remember the GM bought EDS in the 80s and EDS milked GM for all it was worth. EDS did great; GM not so. Of course GM thought it was buying a company to outsource its IT to while HP is looking to merge outsourcing operations with EDS.
Yay! An alternative to IBM Global Services from the maker of some really good servers. Too bad it's EDS, well at least it's not Accenture!
Go Ross Perot!
Seeing as one contract of EDS's, NMCI, just finished (or is real damn close to finishing) a tech refresh of the computers they provide.
We all got new Dells.
I like you, Stuart. You're not like everyone else, here, at Slashdot.
Looks like HP is moving into IBM/DELL territory ( managed IT services ). I'm not too worried for IBM.
DELL, on the other hand, has a real fight on its hands. So.. umm... Mike.. why don't you forget about your small business services crap and go back to focus on making good machines and providing good customer service.
I don't know if EDS was the best vehicle to use, but its better than trying to setup something new.
"We are -- and will remain -- EDS."
Until the day after the merger, the execs cache out, and the infighting between the remaining managers starts. Executives on the bottom end of the merger always do one of two things:
- Cash out
- Try to outmaneuver the execs on the top end of the merger and take over the whole company, with a lot of bitter intrigue in the process
You have to wonder how current EDS customers who are attached to their non HP hardware and software will feel about this when EDS suddenly has a massive bias to drive every nail with an HP hammer.
@de_machina
EDS is an IT services company, what else would it be?
simon
Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
EDS are a useless shower of bastards who will be first against the wall when the revolution comes. Utterly incompetent, they have an over-inflated sense of self-importance which is continually bolstered by corporations and governments who continue, against all evidence and logic, to truck huge wads of cash over to the aforementioned useless bastards who then fuck it all up and deliver shit, late.
The UK government has already given the cunts enough of my cash that I should own a couple of EDS offices by now. Instead we've got sweet F.A.
Very very sad.
RS
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
HP makes about $10B per year in profit from ink alone. They make another $6B or so from everything else so they could easily afford this transaction. It does raise some eyebrows though because EDS has IT support contracts with lots of big companies. If EDS starts exclusively providing/supporting HP products, competitors (think Dell) might have grounds to complain to the DOJ.
as an employee, all i want to know is when we here at EDS will be able to buy HP gear with employee's discount...
20% off on a laser printer would be sweeeet!!!
What ? Me, worry ?
And in the UK.
For instance:
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/leader/0,1000002982,39175379,00.htm
and
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/01/05/eds_failure_clause/
simon
EDS: 16?
HP: No, how about 12?
EDS: 15?
HP: You're getting warmer, how about 13?
EDS: 14?
HP: Okay, that sounds good, but we don't have 14 ink cartridges here, how about 14 billion in cash?
EDS: Well, ok......
Reminds me of what I said to my boss - don't give me that pay rise; get a cappuccino machine and free coffee and I'll be happy. He couldn't believe it - the fact I was happy to give up a pay rise for that. As I said to him, if I get free coffee at work, I don't have to pay for it, which means I come back better off in the end :D
"Agilent was a spin off of HP. Wrong way, bub."
I'm aware of that - it illustrates HP's tendency to disregard a division's success or brand identity when deciding it's fate. IIRC, the HP calculator and equipment operations were comfortably profitable and highly regarded in the world of test equipment. But Carly decided she just didn't want to be in that business anymore (distracting from the development of newer, smaller, more expensive ink cartridges), so she threw it overboard with some name out of a focus group session.
Now the operation loses sales because when people search for the HP scopes they are looking for they are NLA, and HP loses the cachet of retaining their REAL hardware roots. Tell me the sum of the parts is worth more than the whole on that deal. I'd expect whole parts of EDS to be thrown overboard within a couple of years.
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
Since I had never heard of EDS, I figure a lot of other Slashdot readers probably haven't, either. Here are some interesting tidbits about the company, courtesy of Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Data_Systems
the JoshMeister on Security
Damn. Seems nobody got the joke (yet). When EDS purchased somewhere back in the late 80s, I think, it is rumoured that Ross Perot thought he was purchasing GM, rather than the other way around.
:(
I guess if I have to explain it, it's not funny.
My blog
I remember what HP's culture was from the perspective of a user of fine test equipment (spectrum-analyzers RF-generators logic-analyzers distortion-analyzers) including using the technical support provided by HP (after sales) and less frequently involved in the purchasing process with the sales force of HP. For me, most of this experience started in the late 70's and continues today. However what I call HP is now Agilent that in my IMHO was the stupidest spin-off in the electronics industry.
... including making documentation available. (service manuals with schematics may not have been free but you could get one and it was not outrageous.)
.. (shipping was included in the purchase price at the time of purchases). Turned into a major fiasco .
HP was a company that would support any thing it sold even real old stuff
There was always a voice at the end of the phone that was competent and could answer rather complex questions on the use and application of said equipment. (now, remember this is very post sale)
On the Sales side, equipment would be demo-ed and lent by the most competent and professional staff in the business. I never had any one in the pre-sales for and instrument LIE to me in any way. Would gladly inform me of the limitations of there products. (And in not a to boastful way would try to point out weakness in the competition but this was from pride and not BS. Never had an HP sales rep bad-mouth Tektronix for example.
I recently helped my wife purchase a multifunction printer from HP (LaserJet M3035 MFP). This is just big enough that these models are not stocked in stores like Best Buy, Microcenter, Frys and the like. We chose to purchase from the toll free phone number found on the HP website. The experience we had was appalling. I don't believe that I was ever told any truth about any thing during this experience. It started with slick double talk that would make a used car salesmen on the 3AM movie sick. (I already picked out the unit, and all that was needed to be done was to enter the job/sales order). The larger part of the stupidly encountered was that we were shipped 2 units (we only ordered 1). We refused delivery on the 2nd unit. Fortunately we use my wife's business American Express Card for this purchase, as far as the billing AMX fixed it. HP tried to bill us for both units, then backed off to the shipping costs
A friend shared with me that they believe that this is due to the Compaq sales culture that HP 'got' from the merger/acquisition. I do not know if this is true but it is a far cry from the HP of yester year.
My last dealings with Agilent have been still good but is has deteriorated from the slandered set by the old HP.
You DO NOT want to join me in the hell that is decaf-coffee, my friend. Not saying you should give it up, but consider cutting back. The caffeine forces your heart to work harder, while constricting your blood vessels at the same time. Heart gets tired, swells up, leaving less room for blood inside for each pump. You dont want this. Docs told me to give up bacon too, but I told them I would rather fucking die.
Cut back, my brother.