戴尔与惠普仍有可能联姻

刘颖

Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman yesterday predicted that Dell’s $64 billion purchase of EMC Corp. EMC -2.79% will result in “chaos,” thus creating a “real opportunity for HP.” At the same time, Re/Code reported that Dell explored a sale of its PC business before signing the EMC agreement, but couldn’t find any takers.
    Despite the shade and failure, don’t be surprised if HP and Dell’s PC unit don’t eventually get married.
    HP HPQ -0.24% reportedly was among those that passed on Dell’s offer, but that was primarily because it was in the final stages of splitting into a pair of separate companies. That process is set to wrap up at the end of this month, after which HP Inc. will sell PCs and printers, while Hewlett Packard Enterprise will sell servers and other business hardware. Whitman will be leading the latter company, and serve as non-executive chairman of the former.
    The incoming CEO of HP Inc., Dion Weisler, also said yesterday that Dell would be “distracted,” and urged his sales teams to “aggressively pursue Dell accounts” — but was a bit more measured in his language than was Whitman. My guess is that was because Weisler wanted to make sure not to burn bridges, so that he can scoop up Dell’s PC business once the HP split has occurred and had a bit of time to solidify.
    HP Inc. is the single most logical landing spot for Dell’s PC business, as they are number one and number two, respectively, in terms of market share (albeit a sinking market, as Dell’s gross profit for the segment fell 26% in the first half of its latest fiscal year). Moreover, Dell still has plenty of reason to sell, since proceeds could be used to pay down the massive pile of debt that it will amass from the EMC merger. Moreover, the EMC deal makes it even clearer that Dell views itself as more of an enterprise tech company than a consumer one.
    Now all we need to do is wait for this second shoe to drop…

刘颖

10月13日 ，老牌电脑制造商惠普公司的首席执行官梅格·惠特曼预计，戴尔斥资640亿美元收购EMC的交易将产生“混乱”，创造“真正属于惠普的机会”。同日，美国知名科技网站Re/Code报道，在签订EMC收购协议以前，戴尔曾尝试出售旗下个人电脑业务，但没找到买家。

    尽管这次接洽没能成功留下些阴影，但若惠普和戴尔的个人电脑部门最终还是顺利联姻，也别觉得意外。

    据悉，惠普就是当初拒绝了戴尔个人电脑业务交易邀约的公司之一，当时惠普之所以拒绝主要是因为该公司正处于拆分为两家独立公司HP Inc.和HP Enterprise的冲刺阶段。分拆过程定于本月末收尾。完成分拆后，HP Inc.将经营个人电脑和打印机业务，HP Enterprise将出售服务器和其他商用硬件。惠特曼将领导HP Enterprise公司，同时出任HP Inc.公司的非执行董事长。

    即将担任HP Inc.公司首席执行官的迪昂·韦斯勒10月13日 预计，戴尔会“分散精力”。他敦促本公司的销售人员“主动追讨戴尔应付的帐款”。但他的语气比惠特曼的克制些。我估计那是因为韦斯勒想要留条后路，这样一旦惠普的拆分完成，有时间巩固自身业务之时，还可以将戴尔的个人电脑业务收入囊中。

    对戴尔来说，惠普是其待售个人电脑业务最合乎逻辑的落脚点。毕竟，这两家公司是全球个人电脑市场占有率排名前两位的双雄（不过市场在萎缩，最近一财年的上半年，戴尔个人电脑毛利锐减26%）。而且，戴尔还有充分的出售个人电脑业务的理由，因为这笔交易所得可以用于偿还因收购EMC而接纳对方的大量债务。而EMC收购交易也更清楚地表明，戴尔自认为是一家科技企业，并非消费品制造商。

    现在我们只需要观望，等待第二只鞋落地。