, Columnist
Hewlett-Packard's Slow, Sad Breakup
Innovation goes from two guys in a garage to tax-free transactions.
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It's hard to find a buyer for an ailing company with more than $100 billion in annual sales. It's far easier to sell it really slowly.
That was the position CEO Meg Whitman faced in 2014 with Hewlett-Packard. She did yeoman's work for three years to rescue the company from its status as the Mr. Magoo of corporate America. But it was clear by then that the growth-challenged mishmash of a company that sold personal computers, printers, servers and consulting work didn't make sense. Hewlett explored a deal with EMC for a while, and when that didn't work out, it split into two.