Identifying Risks and Opportunities as HP Investigates Spin-offs and Acquisitions
Speculation in the marketplace suggests HP will spin-off their PC business and seek to acquire software company, Autonomy. As with any major technology acquisition, SVM professionals need to be vigilant in identifying new risks. Here are some of the things to consider as this continues to develop:
- If you’re in the midst of crafting a PC Refresh RFP, ask how contracts will be maintained going forward in the RFP. The spin-off brings new risk to your HP contracts. Though no official news release indicate how contracts will be handled, your HP Big Deal letter and enterprise purchasing contracts may or may not remain the same. You may also want to understand how spare parts will be made available for your HP devices, post-spin-off—will that be through HP? The new spin off? I would recommend you also understand any changes to warranties and after-point-of-sale services through the RFP process.
- If you’re a current (or soon-to-be) Autonomy customer, get your licenses in check. From an audit perspective, ensure you’re in compliance with your licenses before HP targets you. Though HP may not be as proactive in auditing its customers compared to others, new acquisitions make it more likely for them to take advantage of implementing new licensing schemes—challenging your existing license ownership.
- Reach out to your resellers for discounted HP WebOS tablets. HP will discontinue its TouchPad operations. Beware–don’t expect that they’ll be able to service them (or provide any OS updates) if you have any issues.