Breaking up is hard to do. Thankfully for HP the long-awaited divorce of its commercial and enterprise units is behind it.
As of November 1 what used to be known as HP will now be Hewlett Packard Enterprise, which will focus on enterprise infrastructure and services, and HP Inc., which will produce consumer devices, like laptops, desktops and printers.
HP Inc.'s business will be run by President and CEO Dion Weisler, formerly the Executive Vice President of HP's Printing and Personal Systems unit. As head of HP Inc. Weisler's team will attempt to revive HP's consumer business based on three core product differentiators: price, growth and innovation, according to a statement made by Ron Coughlin, Senior Vice President at HP Inc. last month.
What about Hewlett Packard Enterprise?
Meg Whitman will be the CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise. Whitman joined HP as CEO in 2011. She was previously the CEO of eBay. One of her first acts as HP's CEO was to announce that HP would not splinter off its PC division.
Instead, Whitman's five-year plan to turn around HP focused on the introduction of cloud-based products for the enterprise and reducing HP's workforce through layoffs. In the past year, Hewlett-Packard has cut about 80,000 positions in order to prepare for the restructure, which Whitman said will turn HP into two "nimble" companies.
"By transitioning now from one HP to two new companies, created out of our successful turnaround efforts, we will be in an even better position to compete in the market, support our customers and partners, and deliver maximum value to our shareholders," she said earlier this year.
The overall family tree
HP Inc. and Hewlett Packar Enterprise will remain in the top half of the Fortune 500 list, but they will be minuscule compared to what HP was last year – the 19th largest company in the world.
The split will cost HP approximately $2.7 billion (around £1.74 billion, or AU$3.76 billion), according to the company's own projections.
Click here for an in-depth examination of what happened to HP
