Hewlett-Packard is preparing to announce that it is folding its printer business into its PC unit, according to AllThingsD. The report, published Tuesday, cited unnamed sources as saying that long-time Imaging and Printing Group (IGP) head Vyomesh Joshi will leave HP as part of the rumored reorganization.
An HP spokesperson told PCMag that the company was not commenting on the AllThingsD report.
Last August, HP briefly flirted with the idea of exiting the PC business altogether when then-chief executive Léo Apotheker and the HP board authorized "the exploration of strategic alternatives for its Personal Systems Group (PSG)," including "a broad range of options that may include, among others, a full or partial separation of PSG from HP through a spin-off or other transaction."
But Apotheker's ouster later in 2011 and Meg Whitman's arrival as the new CEO of HP apparently ended any consideration the company may have had for spinning off PSG.
"HP objectively evaluated the strategic, financial, and operational impact of spinning off PSG," Whitman said in an October statement announcing that the company would remain in the PC business indefinitely. "It's clear after our analysis that keeping PSG within HP is right for customers and partners, right for shareholders, and right for employees. HP is committed to PSG, and together we are stronger."
If PSG does absorb IPG as AllThingsD predicts, it would bring together two once-thriving HP business units that have performed less well of late. HP is still the biggest manufacturer of non-tablet PCs in the world, but the rise of tablets like Apple's iPad has hurt the company's ability to grow its PC business at the pace it had since acquiring Compaq in 2002.
The printing business under Joshi, who joined the computing giant in 1980, was once HP's crown jewel but has also seen its financials slip in recent quarters.
Todd Bradley currently runs PSG for HP. He would also oversee the combined PSG-IPG business, according to AllThingsD, which would become "easily the biggest group inside HP." The two business units combined for about $65 billion in sales in 2011, more than half of HP's total revenue last year.
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