SAN FRANCISCO — In a dramatic reshuffling, Hewlett-Packard Co. said Thursday that it will discontinue its tablet computer and smartphone products and may sell or spin off its PC division, bowing out of the consumer businesses.
It’s one of the most extreme makeovers in the company’s 72- year history and signals new chief executive Leo Apotheker’s most transparent move to date to make HP look more like longtime rival IBM Corp., which now makes most of its money from software and services.
The most apparent result for consumers will be the end of HP’s TouchPad tablet, a sales dud, and HP-branded smartphones, also- rans in a booming market crowded with the iPhone and devices based on Google’s Android system. By the end of next year, HP computers could be sold under another company’s name.
HP will continue to sell servers and other equipment to business customers, just as IBM now does.
A decade ago, HP emerged from a bitter fight to spend more than $24 billion on Compaq Computer, setting the stage for HP to become the world’s No. 1 maker of personal computers.
Colorado connection
Before the merger closed, HP and Compaq employed 6,600 in Colorado. Last summer, that figure stood at roughly 3,200, before HP’s plans to shed about 9,000 jobs across the country.
HP spokesman Michael Thacker declined Thursday to disclose details about the company’s operations in the state.
The bulk of its Colorado workforce is in Fort Collins and Colorado Springs. Over the years, Colorado has been home to call center, and marketing and sales jobs, so any HP cuts stemming from its shift away from consumer-targeted products will probably hit Colorado.
Colorado Springs once served as the headquarters for Compaq’s storage division, a business services unit, and HP’s Fort Collins workforce has included software developers.
HP employs more than 300,000 worldwide. It’s unclear whether the new strategy will lead to layoffs.
“We haven’t announced any information . . . on any local offices,” Thacker said.
Taking the IBM route
The PC industry is under pressure from hot-selling smartphones and tablet computers, which have contributed to already weak consumer demand for PCs in the U.S. and Europe.
More striking is that HP plans to shutter its fledgling smartphone and tablet business just two years after spending $1.8 billion on smartphone maker Palm, which gave HP the webOS software that has been praised by critics but largely been ignored by the marketplace.
Separately, HP said it is buying business software maker Autonomy for about $10 billion. The decision to buy Autonomy also marks a change of course for HP, one that makes HP’s trajectory look remarkably similar to rival IBM’s nearly a decade ago.
HP also announced its latest quarterly results. The company earned 93 cents a share in the latest quarter. That’s up from 75 cents a share a year earlier. Its adjusted earnings were $1.10 a share, a penny above analyst expectations.
Revenue climbed less than 2 percent to $31.2 billion.
Denver Post staff writer Andy Vuong contributed to this report.
