Hewlett-Packard, an American multinational information technology company, has not completed any business acquisitions since December of 2011 when the company bought Hiflex, a German cloud printing company. However, Meg Whitman, who became the CEO of Hewlett-Packard in October of 2011, is saying that the company could be looking into some business acquisitions in the very near future.
Most of Whitman’s time as CEO has been spent dealing with losses from a business acquisition that occurred just before the December 2011 purchase of Hiflex. The former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, Leo Apotheker, worked out a deal that got Hewlett-Packard a software maker called Autonomy for $11 billion. Whitman, who was on the board of directors at Hewlett-Packard at the time of the purchase, admitted that Hewlett-Packard paid too much for the company.
The acquisition of Autonomy left Hewlett-Packard in a fair amount of debt. Hewlett-Packard was forced to write off $8.8 billion after discovering fraudulent activity worth $5 billion within the books of their newly acquired company. Autonomy’s founder, Mike Lynch, has denied these charges, but the situation has caught the attention of regulators in both the United States and the United Kingdom. The incident has also resulted in the resignation of two Hewlett-Packard board members and multiple shareholder lawsuits.
Autonomy aside, Hewlett-Packard recently posted a two-in-a-row beat on earnings and said that the financial turmoil the company has been facing is improving. When asked about future business acquisitions Whitman said that the company might need to invest in companies that will meet the needs of the changing market. Companies that deal with security, big, data, mobility, and cloud would be the types of businesses Hewlett-Packard may be looking to get into in the future. Still, Whitman made it clear that if any acquisitions are made in the coming months or years, they will be small to medium-sized acquisitions based on returns.
For more information about Hewlett-Packards outlook on potential business acquisitions please visit: http://www.businessinsider.com/hp-to-shop-for-acquisitions-2014-2.