2016 saw the one-year anniversary of one of the most significant splits in IT history between HP Inc. and HPE.
Many pundits evaluated the first year of HP on its own a close to a home run for the corporate giant. The success of the HP split performed very well in Canada. HP Inc.’s Canadian footprint in commercial PC sales has become much stronger, the gap between HP PC sales and competitors grew by almost 15 per cent in the last year, and with investments into printing and copying, HP plans to keep that growth as they move forward. HP also pulled the trigger on a massive deal to acquire the printing business of Samsung.
Mary Ann Yule, the president of HP Canada, outlined a bold agenda to reinvent and amaze customers in 2016. She treated the situation as a startup; including the energy of a startup. “We already have a magnificent brand with a tremendous heritage that is emboldened and committed to making amazing technology to delight our customers and our channel partners,” she said.
A big moment came this past September when HP Inc. spent $1.05 billion to acquire Samsung Electronics’ printer business. HP went into the deal as the worldwide market leader in printing and imaging with 40 per cent market share, a spot they have held for the past 30 years, but with only a minor footprint of five per cent in a copier market that was valued at $55 billion.
“We said we were going to continue to focus on these areas in print to be able to deliver better printing solutions than anybody else, and we did it. We put our money where our mouth is,” Yule said. “We bought the Samsung division to be able to participate in the A3 copier space, alongside the other great technologies we already have in the print space.”