HP to split, but who gets to keep HP Labs?

Since those heady days, the company's interests broadened considerably, extending well into the computing world to encompass printers, scanners, computers and servers. By 1999, the company was considered by its management to be too large, so – counterintuitively – it spun out its T&M business into a new company called Agilent. Then, last year, Agilent itself split into two: Keysight Technologies is now home to electronic measurement technology – HP's heritage – whilst the Agilent name is retained for life sciences business. Now HP is splitting into two companies. One, which will retain the HP brand, will handle personal systems and printing; the other, to be called Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, will focus on enterprise level technology. HP has had a troubled few years. In 2012, it announced it was cutting 27,000 jobs – a figure that increased to 34,000 – in a move to make the company 'more nimble'. In 2011, it forked out $10.3billion for an 87% stake in UK software company Autonomy, a figure described by some as 'absurdly high' and, apparently a move opposed by its Chief Financial Officer. Since then, HP has written the acquisition down by $8.8bn. The deal is still being fought in US courts. Hidden within all of this is a jewel – HP Labs, which is home to some of the world's leading researchers. Between them, these scientists have made some major breakthroughs, including the recent development of the memristor. It has an R&D budget in excess of $3bn, but hasn't been mentioned in the reorganisation.