Hewlett-Packard is going to sell its PC business, according to reports in the Wall Street Journal and elsewhere. HP is currently the world’s largest PC maker. Round Rock-based Dell is the second largest.
So what would it mean for Dell, which employs about 16,000 people in Central Texas? We asked John Doggett, a senior lecturer at the University of Texas McCombs School of Business.
“If HP sells, this is the best thing that could happen to Dell in the next year, year-and-a-half," Doggett said.
"Everybody who’s buying a lot of PCs is going to say, ‘I don’t want to deal with a company where, in the case of HP, everybody’s worried about keeping their job. I’m going to look at Dell, because Dell is the last man standing,'" he said.
But Doggett believes Dell needs to make some strategic shifts to keep its PC business thriving.
"First, it has to cut the number of PCs and laptops that it offers, make each of them innovative and special, because if it doesn't, Dell is going to face the same fate as IBM and HP," he said, citing competition from Apple in general and the iPad in particular.
Dell cut its revenue forecast today, saying it expects growth in the 1 to 5 percent range this year, instead of 5 to 9 percent.
