HP Seals the Deal, Buys EDS For $14B

netbuzz writes "Following yesterday's spate of heated rumors, the announcement comes this morning that HP has completed a deal to buy EDS for just under $14 billion. The acquisition has been approved by the boards of both companies, according to HP. EDS CEO Ron Rittenmeyer has issued an e-mail to his employees promising that the company brand will continue and, "We are — and will remain — EDS."

I admit, this amuses me...

[NecroPuppy]

Seeing as one contract of EDS's, NMCI, just finished (or is real damn close to finishing) a tech refresh of the computers they provide.

We all got new Dells.

Re:I hope HP is smarter than GM

[PalmKiller]

Looks like EDS is still milking that cow: http://www.computerworld.com/managementtopics/outsourcing/story/0,10801,108308,00.html [computerworld.com]

Re:Yay!

[morgan_greywolf]

Go Ross Perot!

Ross Perot no longer has anything to do with EDS. He sold out his stake to GM many, many years ago.

The view from Dallas

[RobertB-DC]

The Dallas Morning News, EDS' hometown paper, is carrying the announcement [dallasnews.com] as well. Kinda soft-peddling it, with a rather dismissive note at the bottom about the Bad News:

During a conference call with reporters Tuesday morning, Mr. Rittenmeyer said there will probably be some job cuts as a result of the deal.

But he suggested they might not be extensive, noting that H-P and EDS don't currently overlap in many business areas.

"In terms of job cuts, we are continuing to streamline our workforce at EDS," Mr. Rittenmeyer said. "We've been doing that for some time. There obviously are going to be some changes. We had plans for that this year. We're going to continue to look at automation. We're going to continue to look at quality. Automation makes quality and service better for the client. It's just a natural evolution."

Re:Heh...

[Anonymous Coward]

Compaq's CEO certainly sent out a similar email.

The surviving Compaq portions of the combined company still have a lot of Compaq culture in them, but the HP culture is slowly eating that away.

The CEO's extreme cost cutting is having an effect as well. Compaq employees used to have individual offices and free Cokes in the labs. Now we have cubes and expensive vending machine Cokes. Hell, they even took away the sporks from the break rooms.

So, EDS folk: welcome to the company. Say goodbye to your sporks.

Re:So long DELL?

[maxume]

IBM does $54 billion in services.

EDS does $22 billion in services.

HP does $17 billion in services.

Dell does $6 billion in services.

The deal probably isn't quite about Dell.

Re:So long DELL?

[Fozzyuw]

Apple computers are price competitive if you compare them feature for feature;

Oddly, every time I price out a Mac Book Pro, it's well over $1,000 more than it's PC counter part. Case in point... the 17" Mac Book Pro 2.5Ghz Core 2 Duo starts at $2,799. I priced out a 17" Dell Inspiron 17" 2.4Ghz Core 2 Duo and it came up to ~$1,700 with 3-year accidental damage warranty. When I configure the Mac Book Pro to have more similar features (4GB ram, 3-year Apple Care Warranty, etc), the price jumps too $3,348.00 So, how are Mac's Price comparable? That's $1,600 more than the Dell laptop.

For that $3,348.00, you can get a cutting edge AlienWare (a Dell acquisition) with multiple video cards, RAID HD's, etc. So, what am I seeing wrong that makes the Dell Inspiron system not comparable, hardware for hardware, to the Mac Book Pro? Easy enough to load Ubuntu on the Dell giving it a "geek" OS.

Serious question. I've been wanting a Mac Book Pro, but the prices are astronomical compared to PC laptops.

What's EDS?

[the JoshMeister]

Since I had never heard of EDS, I figure a lot of other Slashdot readers probably haven't, either. Here are some interesting tidbits about the company, courtesy of Wikipedia:

• * EDS is short for Electronic Data Systems
• * EDS defined the outsourcing business when it was established in 1962 by Ross Perot
• * EDS catalogs its services into three service portfolios which are Infrastructure, Applications and Business Process Outsourcing
  • * Infrastructure services includes maintaining the operation of part or all of a client's computer and communications infrastructure, such as networks, mainframes, "midrange" and Web servers, desktops and laptops, and printers
  • * Applications services involves the developing, integrating, and/or maintaining of applications software for clients
  • * Business process outsourcing includes performing a business function for a client, like payroll, call centers, insurance claims processing, and so forth
• * Most of EDS's clients are very large companies and governments that need services from a company of EDS's scale. EDS's largest clients include General Motors, Bank Of America, KarstadtQuelle, Kraft, United States Navy, the UK Ministry of Defence and the Royal Dutch Shell

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Data_Systems [wikipedia.org]

Re:In related news...

[morgan_greywolf]

Damn. Seems nobody got the joke (yet). When EDS purchased somewhere back in the late 80s, I think, it is rumoured that Ross Perot thought he was purchasing GM, rather than the other way around.

I guess if I have to explain it, it's not funny. :(

HP culture of yesteryear..

[guzzirider]

I remember what HP's culture was from the perspective of a user of fine test equipment (spectrum-analyzers RF-generators logic-analyzers distortion-analyzers) including using the technical support provided by HP (after sales) and less frequently involved in the purchasing process with the sales force of HP. For me, most of this experience started in the late 70's and continues today. However what I call HP is now Agilent that in my IMHO was the stupidest spin-off in the electronics industry.

HP was a company that would support any thing it sold even real old stuff ... including making documentation available. (service manuals with schematics may not have been free but you could get one and it was not outrageous.)

There was always a voice at the end of the phone that was competent and could answer rather complex questions on the use and application of said equipment. (now, remember this is very post sale)

On the Sales side, equipment would be demo-ed and lent by the most competent and professional staff in the business. I never had any one in the pre-sales for and instrument LIE to me in any way. Would gladly inform me of the limitations of there products. (And in not a to boastful way would try to point out weakness in the competition but this was from pride and not BS. Never had an HP sales rep bad-mouth Tektronix for example.

I recently helped my wife purchase a multifunction printer from HP (LaserJet M3035 MFP). This is just big enough that these models are not stocked in stores like Best Buy, Microcenter, Frys and the like. We chose to purchase from the toll free phone number found on the HP website. The experience we had was appalling. I don't believe that I was ever told any truth about any thing during this experience. It started with slick double talk that would make a used car salesmen on the 3AM movie sick. (I already picked out the unit, and all that was needed to be done was to enter the job/sales order). The larger part of the stupidly encountered was that we were shipped 2 units (we only ordered 1). We refused delivery on the 2nd unit. Fortunately we use my wife's business American Express Card for this purchase, as far as the billing AMX fixed it. HP tried to bill us for both units, then backed off to the shipping costs .. (shipping was included in the purchase price at the time of purchases). Turned into a major fiasco .

A friend shared with me that they believe that this is due to the Compaq sales culture that HP 'got' from the merger/acquisition. I do not know if this is true but it is a far cry from the HP of yester year.

My last dealings with Agilent have been still good but is has deteriorated from the slandered set by the old HP.