Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.Further to our reports on Dell and SilverLake?, today’s FT carries a report - HP rebuffs acquisition inquiries– which postulated that HP had received separate ‘expressions of interest’ for both its Autonomy and services (ex-EDS) units. It also reported that HP ‘had responded with a firm ‘No’’.
This is where my job gets really interesting! Both the ideas have ‘legs’ and I expect this story to ‘run and run’ (sorry). Of course, Autonomy would be worth a mere fraction of the $10b HP paid for it. But they have already taken a $8.8b write down on a huge chunk of that. Mike Lynch, who has recently garnered $1b support for his investment fund, would be seen as a front runner. But, one suspects, Meg Whitman couldn’t take the ignominy of that at any price!
The ex-EDS units were once highly respected leaders in the IT services field – certainly #1 in the UK ten years back. Unlikely they would get the $14b paid – but again write-downs have already been made.
We live in interesting times…