Major Announcement – HP Launches A3 Printing Portfolio.

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New portfolio delivers affordable color, maximum uptime, and leading security for customers and partners

News Highlights:

•   Launches 16 next generation HP A3 multifunction printers (MFPs) based on award-winning HP LaserJet and HP PageWide technology
•   Introduces HP Smart Device Services (SDS) to reduce downtime and transform the service experience through the cloud and smart devices
•  Built with best-in-class printer security including real-time threat detection and automated monitoring
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BOSTON, Sept 12, 2016 – Today at its Global Partner Conference, HP Inc. announced an extensive line of A3 multifunction printers (MFPs) and services aimed at disrupting the $55B copier market. As part of its strategy to reinvent business printing, HP is revolutionizing the traditional copier with a new breakthrough portfolio that enables its partners to sell and service more cost effectively while delivering customers affordable color, reliable performance, and industry-leading security. Visit hp.com/go/newsroom for more details.

“For decades, the copier industry has lacked the technology to improve efficiency of service, make color affordable, and keep up with security requirements,” said Enrique Lores, president, Imaging & Printing, HP Inc. “HP is changing this with next generation A3 multifunction printers that bring to life a reimagined print environment that maximizes uptime, delivers color, and offers best-in-class security.”

Next Generation A3 Multifunction Printers
Today, HP is announcing a full portfolio of A3 MFPs, including three PageWide platforms and 13 LaserJet platforms that will be available as 54 different SKUs with a range of finishing options, including an in-cave stapler stacker, hole punch, high capacity staple / stack and booklet makers. By providing a broad range of device options, HP is providing channel partners robust possibilities and pricing flexibility to meet the needs of their customers.
The HP PageWide Enterprise and Pro platforms will finally make color affordable, along with best in class print speeds and lower energy consumption than in-class laser devices. The simple architecture of HP PageWide – with only three components that may need replacing – will help lower servicing costs for channel partners. The single and multifunction devices will have print speeds ranging from 40 ppm to 60 ppm (up to 80 ppm in General Office mode). The HP PageWide Pro devices will be available beginning in spring 2017 while the HP PageWide Enterprise devices will be available in fall 2017.

The HP LaserJet Managed MFPs will be available as multifunction devices, with color or monochrome printing and speeds ranging from 25 ppm to 60 ppm. The new LaserJets will have some of the longest life components and fastest repair times among A3 laser devices in the industry. These devices will be available beginning in spring 2017.
HP Smart Device Services

To maximize up-time of the HP A3 MFP portfolio for customers, HP is delivering HP Smart Device Services (SDS). SDS is a set of cloud tools and device-based sensing capabilities designed to integrate with industry-leading third party device monitoring and service management tools used commonly by channel partners. SDS will help channel partners dramatically enhance the service experience with HP devices.

Smart Device Services is compatible on HP printers and MFPs with FutureSmart introduced in 2012 and later, including the new A3 PageWide and LaserJet devices. As such, SDS will enhance service efficiency on partners’ fleet and improve up-time on customer’s devices. It will be available to qualified channel partners at no additional cost for all contractual devices using HP Original supplies.
World class printer security

Security is a key consideration in the engineering of the new HP A3 MFPs. Customers want to protect their IP and their customers’ confidential information. The HP PageWide and LaserJet Enterprise devices feature HP’s industry-leading embedded security features, Sure Start, Run-time Intrusion Detection and Whitelisting, making them the world’s most secure printers. The HP PageWide Pro devices will feature best-in-class security features, such as secure boot and firmware integrity checking.

All of the new HP PageWide and LaserJet devices can be used with HP’s security services and JetAdvantage portfolio of management and security software, including the recently announced JetAdvantage on Demand cloud platform, reducing the burden on partners to secure and manage these devices.

Channel partner programs and financing
As part of the broader strategy outlined at its global partner conference, HP has introduced a program to support partner success with HP’s A3 portfolio. Qualified partners will receive guaranteed pricing, sales tools and service support.
HP Financial Services (HPFS) will provide a variety of flexible IT investment options to help partners and their customers acquire, pay for and consume innovative A3 print technology.
About HP
HP Inc. creates technology that makes life better for everyone, everywhere. Through our portfolio of printers, PCs, mobile devices, solutions, and services, we engineer experiences that amaze. More information about HP Inc. is available at http://www.hp.com.

H-P to report as turnaround hopes take hit

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Hewlett-Packard will report Tuesday on what’s now widely known to have been a sluggish quarter for corporate IT demand as the tech giant wraps up what’s been a bumpy fiscal year.

H-P HPQ +0.29%  will post fiscal fourth-quarter results after the market closes on Nov. 26, with analysts expecting yet another decline in profit and sales, as the Palo Alto, Calif.-company wrestles with what executives say is a multi-year turnaround process.

Analysts polled by FactSet on average expect H-P to report a profit of $1 a share on revenue of $27.86 billion. For the year-earlier period, the company posted a profit of $1.16 a share on revenue of $29.96 billion.

H-P did get investors excited during its analyst day last month with a slightly better-than-expected profit outlook for fiscal year 2014, saying it expects revenue to “stabilize” and sees “pockets of growth.” 

But then other tech giants, led by IBM Corp. IBM -0.74%   and Cisco Systems CSCO -0.12%  , put out downbeat quarterly reports, confirming fears of a wobbly corporate IT market, including in key markets such as China. 

The reports suggested bad news for H-P, which is already reeling from a collapsing PC market and is known to be banking on robust corporate IT demand as part of its turnaround strategy.

H-P shares have risen about 12% since the company’s analyst day in October, but the stock have shed about 5% since Cisco spooked the market two weeks ago with a soft outlook that signalled even more weakness in the corporate IT market. 

“We expect H-P to highlight a soft IT spending environment,” Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Brian White told clients in a note on Monday. “However, we are already modeling below average seasonality for its fiscal year fourth quarter. As such, we are not anticipating a major miss on this report. ... However, we remain skeptical on the sustainability of H-P’s turnaround.”

On the other hand, Raymond James analyst Brian Alexander said H-P could post better-than-expected results, telling clients in a note last week that, “With most large cap technology peers missing and/or guiding down, we think the stock could rally further.” 

H-P shares are still up more than 75% year-to-date, largely based on Chief Executive Meg Whitman’s turnaround promise. 

But Alexander also wrote, “While we see near-term upside, we do not see the rally as sustainable, as investors still need to see more evidence of the turnaround gaining traction.”

“We continue to believe fiscal 2014 will serve as a pivotal year for H-P in restoring investor confidence; otherwise, investors will clamor for a breakup of the portfolio,” he added. “For now, though, we would not bet against the stock.” 

Benjamin Pimentel is a MarketWatch reporter based in San Francisco. Follow him on Twitter @BenPimentel.

HP Launches Partner-Owned Contract Managed Print Program

By Steven Burke
June 10, 2013    4:15 PM ET Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ) Monday unveiled at its Discover conference an eagerly-anticipated managed print services program that allows the partner for the first time to own the customer contract, maintaining account control and earning precious top-line revenue.
The HP Managed Print Specialist Resell Program, which allows partners to "hold the paper," is already winning raves from solution providers who see it as a new competitive weapon to drive robust double-digit services margins, while at the same time gaining significant account advantages in a market where HP is a market leader.

The program, one of the first day highlights of HP's annual gathering for technology buyers and technical professionals running through Thursday in Las Vegas, puts partners into the driver's seat in what is a fast-growing market. The program allows partners to leverage proven HP-managed print tools and services that have won HP itself high marks in customer satisfaction for managed print services.

[Related: HP Enterprise Group SVP Seidl Set To Step Aside]

"We believe this is a game-changer," said Bill Avey, vice president, Partner Managed Services for HP, noting that the building blocks for the new program come from HP's acquisition of managed print services provider Printelligent two years ago. "There is pent-up demand for this."

Avey estimates that a whopping 80 percent of the partners already in the HP agent program will take advantage of the full-fledged HP Managed Print Reseller program, with 50 percent of those continuing to use the agent model, too, for some accounts.

Kelly Ireland, founder and CEO of CB Technologies, a Westminster, Calif.-based HP enterprise and agent managed print partner, said the new full-fledged program provides more opportunity for partners like CB Technologies to drive a wide range of new HP business by taking account control.
"From my viewpoint, I feel more involved in the actual account when I am taking the deal direct rather than as an agent," said Ireland. "When we win the deal direct and hold the paper, we feel we have won the customer and have the ability to expand HP's presence in that account. I just feel like under the agent program they are doing business with HP and I am supporting HP. When we hold the paper, I feel like they are doing business with me."

That said, Ireland said she is also a big fan of the HP managed print agent program. HP's managed print prowess with outstanding tools and support have given fits to HP print competitors, she said. "When competitors walk into an HP managed print account, they turn around and walk out," she said. "They know they can't win because HP does such a phenomenal job. I just love the reputation of HP Managed Print. The customer scores are off the charts."

Ireland said she sees CB Technologies HP managed print services growing considerably over the next several years, accounting for about 5 percent of sales. "We see it as a nice, profitable business for us," she said.

John Convery, president of John Convery Consulting, a channel consulting company based in Issaquah, Wash., said the new HP program is sure to give a big market-share shot in the arm to HP's managed print business."The larger partners want to control the P and L [profit and loss] and take title to the paper," said Convery."This allows the partner to build the customer relationship and enhance their margin. Under the agent program you are dealt the hand you get whatever it is -- one point, two points, three points,..etc. By holding the paper, partners control the margin and control the price quote and customer information."
HP, for its part, stressed that the HP Managed Print Specialist Resell Offering provides partners the ability to hold the paper and drive top-line revenue without taking on the huge managed print services infrastructure costs that have pushed more than a few partners to the financial brink. Under an HP Bundled Page program, partners are provided what HP calls an "all-inclusive bundle of pricing and services for resell to the customer, with an 'all in' click [or cost per page] price for supplies, maintenance and break/fix services, as well as the associated delivery and labor with post-sales support."

The program also includes access to a cloud-based application -- HP ExpressDecision Portal -- that connects customers, partners and HP Support in a chain, providing partners with "proposal and quote generation for cost-per-page pricing, client invoicing and reporting, device monitoring, and account and contract management." HP said the portal also provides seamless access to printer supplies, services and maintenance.
PUBLISHED ON JUNE 10, 2013

Does H-P need an investor like Icahn?

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — As unconfirmed rumors swirled on Monday that investor Carl Icahn was buying up shares of Hewlett-Packard Co., its shares rallied, mostly on the prevailing theory that any activism at this point would be good to put pressure the embattled tech giant. 

But it’s still worth asking if indeed Icahn would even be interested in amassing enough of H-P’s HPQ +1.72%   stock to get any kind of a voice or seat on the board. If he did, would he help or hinder Chief Executive Meg Whitman’s effort at a turnaround? Read about H-P and Icahn rumors.

There are divergent views on this hypothetical question. It boils down to what should be done to turn around the fallen tech behemoth. If you are in the camp that believes that H-P’s parts are worth more separately than as a whole company, the presence of someone like Icahn, who was instrumental in the eventual spin-off at Motorola, now part of Google Inc., GOOG -0.10% , could be just the thing investors need.

Reuters

Would Carl Icahn, or an investor like him, be a good thing for H-P?

Icahn’s office did not return a call seeking comment and H-P declined to comment to a MarketWatch reporter.

UBS analyst Steve Milunovich has been advocating that H-P needs to break itself up, and predicted in early October that such a possibility will be prompted by activists or private-equity investors. 

“In our view, full value won’t be realized by just improving operations — structural change is required,” Milunovich wrote in a note. “H-P with its fully developed enterprise and consumer businesses should split up in order to realize greater value.” Read The Tell about Milunovich’s view.

H-P, though, has not embraced this point of view. Whitman appears to be trying to focus on getting the company’s various operations in order, at the same time that the personal computer business is getting hit by the growth in tablets and smartphones. Under the very brief tenure of former CEO Leo Apotheker, H-P looked at possibly spinning out or selling its PC business. He also killed Palm, which H-P purchased to get a foothold in tablets and smartphones. Apotheker wanted to grow software instead. Under Whitman, H-P decided to keep its PC business in tact. 

An outside investor like Icahn — or someone else — could argue that the corporate business, which includes services, servers, and software, does not need to be attached to PCs and printers. Other have argued, however, that the company gets more purchasing power when buying for all the hardware businesses at once. 

Some have also used IBM Corp.’s IBM -0.12%  turnaround, which mostly kept the tech giant together, as an example that H-P should follow. Milunovich argued that IBM is the wrong model in H-P’s case. Because H-P has fully developed consumer and printer businesses, it should be split apart. It’s also worth noting that if IBM is the model some would like to mirror, IBM sold its PC business to Lenovo of China in 2004. And before Lou Gerstner started the turnaround of IBM as its first outsider CEO, the company had already spun out its printer business, which is now Lexmark International Inc. LXK -1.32%

 

The other issue, however, is that H-P already has an activist investor on its board, albeit a silenced one. Ralph Whitworth of Relational Investors LLC, joined H-P’s board in November 2011, after he had accumulated over 17 million shares of the company. As part of the deal, Whitworth agreed not to publicly seek H-P’s sale or merger or spin off any of its assets.

Would another activist investor like Icahn want to get involved with a company that already has one activist on its board? 

Eric Jackson, founder of Ironfire Capital, said H-P is a tough situation for any activist investor.

“It would be tough for anyone right now,” Jackson said in an e-mail. “There are no silver bullets.” He also added that he did not think that “the styles of Icahn and Whitworth mesh well either.”

If Icahn is actually buying up H-P shares, investors will learn soon enough. But whether he or any other daring activist, could be an agent of major change, as some would hope, is a bigger question.

 

Therese Poletti is a senior columnist for MarketWatch in San Francisco.

Who Will Be the Next Hewlett-Packard?

During the technology-stock bubble of the 1990s, it would have been a compliment to say a company had the potential to become the next Hewlett-Packard Co. That same line would have a very different meaning now.

Today, if someone called a company the next Hewlett- Packard, this would probably mean it is a prime candidate to book huge losses because of disastrous acquisitions. What might such a company look like? Consider Xerox Corp. (XRX)

At the start of 2007, Xerox had a stock-market value of $16 billion. Since then, the Norwalk, Connecticut-based printer and copier pioneer has paid about $9.1 billion to acquire 41 other companies. It has destroyed more value than it created. At $6.79 a share, Xerox’s market value is $8.6 billion -- equivalent to 71 percent of its common shareholder equity, or book value.

The most glaring sign that large writedowns may be needed at Xerox is a line on its books called goodwill, which is the intangible asset that a company records when it pays a premium in a takeover. Xerox’s balance sheet would have investors believe that its goodwill alone, at $9 billion, is more valuable than what the market says the whole company is worth.

Xerox’s goodwill obviously isn’t worth that in reality. Goodwill exists only on paper and can’t be sold by itself. It’s a plug number, defined under the accounting rules as the difference between the purchase price for an acquisition and the fair value of the acquired company’s net assets.

‘Reference Points’

Asked about the possible need for large writedowns, a Xerox spokeswoman, Karen Arena, noted that the company will conduct its annual goodwill-impairment test this quarter.
“Share price is just one of several reference points we use to validate our assumptions,” she said. “We also look to our operational results, including cash flows, revenue growth and profit margins.”
Most of the goodwill on Xerox’s balance sheet arose from the company’s $6.5 billion acquisition in 2010 of Affiliated Computer Services Inc., a provider of information-technology services. Xerox allocated $5.1 billion of the purchase price in that deal to goodwill. Xerox’s latest balance sheet also showed $2.9 billion of other intangible assets, the bulk of which are customer relationships acquired from Affiliated Computer.
Suspiciously high goodwill was the same indicator I pointed to in an Oct. 4 blog post suggesting that more large writedowns were needed at Hewlett-Packard. (HPQ) The Palo Alto, California-based maker of computers and printers traded for a significant discount to book value at the time, and its goodwill exceeded its market value by $7.5 billion.

Hewlett-Packard last week disclosed an $8.8 billion writedown of goodwill and other intangible assets from its 2011 purchase of the U.K. software maker Autonomy Corp. It said more than $5 billion of the charge was related to financial-reporting improprieties by Autonomy. The disclosure sent Hewlett-Packard’s shares down 12 percent in a day.

Regardless of whether the allegation proves correct, Hewlett-Packard paid way too much for Autonomy, which had a reputation for aggressive accounting long before it was bought. (Just ask the analysts at the financial-research firm CFRA in New York, who wrote 14 reports from 2001 to 2010 raising doubts about Autonomy’s accounting and disclosure practices.)

Hewlett-Packard had allocated $6.9 billion of its $11 billion purchase price for Autonomy to goodwill. The writedowns disclosed last week were only the latest of their kind. Three months earlier, Hewlett-Packard recorded a $9.2 billion writedown largely related to its buyout of Electronic Data Systems Corp. in 2008.

Dubious Leaders

A search for other companies with strangely high goodwill values turned up several notable examples. Credit Agricole SA (ACA), the French bank that trades for about a third of its book value, shows goodwill of 16.9 billion euros ($21.9 billion). By comparison, its stock-market value is 14.6 billion euros.
Telecom Italia SpA (TIT), which trades for about 60 percent of its book value, has goodwill of 36.8 billion euros and a market capitalization of only 13.2 billion euros. Fiat SpA (F), the Italian automaker, trades for less than half of book and shows goodwill of 10.4 billion euros -- more than twice its market value. Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. trades for 78 percent of book and shows $5.3 billion of goodwill; its market cap is $4 billion.


Those kinds of numbers -- where the balance sheets are clearly out of whack with market sentiments -- don’t necessarily mean the companies will be required to slash asset values. But they are strong indicators that big writedowns may be needed. The test under the rules ultimately comes down to management’s cash-flow projections, and whether they are strong enough to justify the goodwill on the books. That’s why goodwill writedowns can be an important signal about the future.
Xerox had an infamous accounting scandal more than a decade ago that resulted in a $10 million fine by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The penalty was a record at the time for an accounting-fraud case. Six former executives, including former Chief Executive Officer Paul Allaire, paid $22 million in SEC settlements in 2003. The last thing Xerox and its CEO, Ursula Burns, should be giving investors is a reason to wonder whether they can trust the company’s numbers.

The market has already decided it has one.

HP Sails Into Perfect Storm for Printers

by Arik Hesseldahl

August 6, 2012 at 12:58 pm PT

Pop quiz: When was the last time you bought a printer? Or an ink cartridge? Or a package of printer paper? Of course, the answer is going to vary from one situation to another, but chances are you’re using a printer a lot less often than you used to.

It’s not hard to see evidence of that wider trend in the results of several companies in the printer and printer supplies business. In a research note out today, analyst Chris Whitmore of Deutsche Bank Securities looked at sales trends over the last 10 quarters at printer companies including Canon, Epson, Lexmark, Xerox and Hewlett-Packard and found that combined sales for equipment and supplies were down 6 percent year on year.

Additionally, sales of printing equipment during the last year have declined similarly, which is a bad sign for sales of supplies as they tend to lag sales of hardware by nine to 12 months and are more often than not the profit-making end of the business. Another indicator, sales of printer paper (specifically A3 and A4 paper) fell 6 percent in the second quarter to levels that are 20 percent below their historical peak in 2006.

Whitmore’s conclusion: The use of printed pages is on what appears to be a permanent decline that could only accelerate as tablets like the iPad and others like it get more popular. “Simply put, the content that was once printed for distribution or portability is now simply being distributed or shared electronically,” he writes.

All of the companies in Whitmore’s survey have already reported their earnings this quarter, except for one: Hewlett-Packard, and it reports its quarterly results on Aug. 22. When we last heard from HP, revenues in its imaging and printing group had decreased by nearly 9 percent, or more than $1 billion, for the six-month period ending April 30, down to $12.4 billion. Leading that decline was a 6 percent drop in sales of supplies, which may not seem important until you realize that sales of supplies have historically amounted to about $17 billion a year, or more than two-thirds of HP’s $25.7 billion revenue in the printer business.

It’s not the first time this trend has been so apparent: HP’s printer fortunes looked very stormy indeed ahead of another earnings report earlier this year.

This decline was at least one of the reasons that HP CEO Meg Whitman combined the company’s printer business unit with the personal computer unit under Executive Vice President Todd Bradley. Selling printers and PCs together, the thinking goes, creates an opportunity to save on costs that are otherwise duplicated.

But there may be other more fundamental changes coming to the way the printer business operates. In an interview with AllThingsD in June, Bradley hinted at such changes, especially around ink products, and indicated the company might reconsider cutting some money-losing printer models on the low end.

No one expects HP’s quarterly results to be particularly good. In fact, the consensus view of analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial calls for it to report overall sales that declined by about 3 percent year on year.

And the future doesn’t look any brighter, especially as the decline in printing extends into the workplace. Companies like Xerox and Lexmark have tried to minimize the damage by turning printing into part of a wider document and work-flow management service. But these services may fall victim to tightening corporate IT budgets. As Whitmore puts it: “From an enterprise standpoint, printing is increasingly a cost to be managed lower rather than area of spend or investment. Although many enterprise print vendors are competing via managed print services engagements, this trend speaks to the discretionary nature of spending on printing. As such, we suspect it will be the most vulnerable to future spending cuts.”