HP plans software surge - with or without webOS

 

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By Stewart Mitchell

Posted on 1 Dec 2011 at 08:27

HP is planning to ramp up its software business, targeting a threefold increase in revenue.

"I want to double or triple our current revenue in software from the current level of $5 billion," chief executive Meg Whitman said in an interview with German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, without giving a timeline for the sales surge.

However, Whitman, who was appointed in September to replace Leo Apotheker, said the company had still not made a decision on the future of its webOS mobile software platform.

"It is complicated," she was quoted as saying when asked about the future of the unit. "We need a good decision, not a quick one."

Last month, sources told Reuters HP was looking to sell webOS mobile software platform in a deal that could fetch hundreds of millions of dollars, but recoup less than the $1.2 billion that HP paid last year.

Former eBay CEO Whitman also defended the $12 billion acquisition of British software firm Autonomy, a deal which was closed in October.

The buyout, which was the centre-piece of a botched strategy shift that cost ex-chief executive Apotheker his job, was "a good acquisition," Whitman said. "Autonomy has potential and we can turn it into a fast-growing unit."