Small surprise, then, that Wall Street was hardly impressed by the move. Needham & Co. felt any gains would be "subtle" and slow to materialize. Morningstar found it sensible if "far from game-changing." Goldman Sachs found it "modestly negative" because the two divisions had few strategic gains.
Most worrisome to some, was the retirement of Vyomesh Joshi, who led HP's printers during three successful decades but was retiring at the moment secular changes are hitting. Then there was this historical tidbit an Evercore Partners report titled "Making Changes that Don't Really Change Anything": In 2005, then-CEO Carly Fiorina combined PC and printer businesses too, only to see the work undone by her successor, Mark Hurd, six months later.
The slowdown in printer sales is hitting HP at a tough time. Whitman is trying to do more than rearrange HP's deck chairs, she's trying to make bold moves to eliminate the company's weaknesses and focus on its strengths. In an earnings call last month, Whitman noted that HP had been slow to respond to fundamental change in its core markets – from PCs to printers to services. Last week, she said that "everything is on the table" in the reand did little to dispel reports that significant layoffs are coming.
HP has been through six CEOs (including two interim chiefs) in the past seven years. Last week marked Whitman's six month anniversary on the job - half the tenure of her predecessor, Léo Apotheker. Reviving HP is a tough task that would take years under the best of circumstances. Doing it while the cash cow is ailing is going to make the task that much harder.
