Report: HP plans to split into two companies

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that HP will break up into two separate companies. According to the report, the company appears ready to split into separate "Consumer" and "Enterprise" companies, with PCs and printers ending up in one company and corporate hardware and services operations going to the other. The Journal says HP plans to announce the move "as early as Monday."

If this sounds familiar, it's because this is basically the plan that was proposed in 2011 when HP's CEO was Léo Apotheker. HP intended to get rid of the "Personal Systems Group" (PSG), the division that makes PCs, and focus on the enterprise. Shareholders didn't like the plan though. So after Apotheker was fired and the current CEO Meg Whitman took over, she decided to keep the PC division. At the time, Whitman said, “It’s clear after our analysis that keeping PSG within HP is right for customers and partners, right for shareholders, and right for employees. HP is committed to PSG, and together we are stronger.” Whiteman reorganized the unit, combining the low-profit PC division with the more profitable printer group.

After a few years, it looks like the old plan is mostly back, and the PC group will be spun off into a separate company and take the printer group with it. WSJ says Whiteman will be the chairman of Consumer HP and CEO of Enterprise HP. The current lead independent director, Patricia Russo, will be chairman of Enterprise HP, and Dion Weisler will move from an executive in the PC/printer group to become the new company's CEO.