HP, the company which sells more personal computers worldwide than any other, announced yesterday that it would stop making PCs. The company also announced that it has decided to withdraw the TouchPad and PalmPre from the market.
‘HP…will discontinue operations for webOS devices, specifically the TouchPad and webOS phones. HP will continue to explore options to optimize the value of webOS software going forward,’ the company said in a statement.
HP’s TouchPad, a tablet which was widely expected to provide significant competition for Apple’s iPad and Android tablets, has only been on sale for two months. Demand was well below expectations, however, and it was discounted by $100 a month after launch. The Palm Pre, and webOS, on which the TouchPad runs were acquired by HP when it bought Palm Computing last year for $1.2bn.
‘HP is at a critical point in its existence and these changes are fundamental to the success we all want,’ Apotheker told analysts on a conference call.
HP also announced yesterday that it is in discussions with the UK’s largest software firm. Autonomy, over what it described as ‘a possible offer for the company.’
HP will pay $7.1bn for the company which was founded in 1996 with a £2000 loan. Co-founders Mike lynch and Richard Gaunt still own a stake in the business and are expected to make £566m from the sale.
Autonomy said in a statement: ‘This is a momentous day in Autonomy’s history. From our foundation in 1996, we have been driven by one shared vision: to fundamentally change the IT industry by revolutionising the way people interact with information. HP shares this vision and provides Autonomy with the platform to bring our world-leading technology and innovation to a truly global stage, making the shift to a future age of the information economy a reality.’
