Hewlett-Packard revealed on Monday that it intends to break itself into two distinct entities and, in so doing, shared a little about how it will all work.
The basics: Hewlett Packard Enterprise will house software and services, networking technologies, as well as its big iron servers and storage, while the other entity, HP Inc., will consist of PCs, notebooks, tablets, and of course printing systems.
HP CEO Meg Whitman said the move will enable each new company to "more aggressively go after the opportunities created by a rapidly changing market," by giving each half "the independence, focus, financial resources, and flexibility they need to adapt quickly to market and customer dynamics."
HP as it stands today targets desktops, displays, thin clients, tablets, laptops, as well as servers, storage and services under the umbrella HP Healthcare Solutions with offerings particular to health plans, including care management and software for automating core administrative processes.
For payers that either already use HP products or are considering them, the question as of press time is if the HP split will effectively require them to buy desktops, notebooks, printers and tablets from one company but the servers and storage that tie them all together from the other HP?
If the company has already devised a plan for dividing those, keeping them intact, or perhaps a cross-selling strategy for healthcare and other vertical industries, company officials are keeping that close to the vest.
"There will be a 12-month period where the specifics of the separation are detailed," a spokesperson told Healthcare Payer News.
That may be little assurance to payer CIOs or IT executives considering a fleet of PCs and printers as well as servers needed to network them all together -- let alone the storage and health plan software HP sells.
What the company has made clear thus far is that the split is part of a 5-year plan to turn around the company, both halves will be publicly-traded, current stockholders will receive one share in each for every share they hold in today's HP, each new HP will be close to evenly financed moving forward.
Whitman is slated to be CEO of HP Enterprise, while the current executive vice president of HP's Printing and Personal Systems business, Don Weisler, will become CEO of HP Inc.
Company officials said HP intends to complete the transaction by the end of its 2015 fiscal year.