Hewlett-Packard Co (HP) is buying wireless networking company Aruba Networks Inc for about US$2.7 billion, in what amounts to HP’s first major acquisition since its disastrous purchase of British software maker Autonomy Corp PLC in 2011.
Aruba, based in Sunnyvale, California, makes Wi-Fi networking systems for shopping malls, corporate campuses, hotels and universities. Its business has grown as more people are using mobile devices at work, school and elsewhere. Aruba may help HP capitalize on that trend, which has cut into sales of traditional HP products such as desktop computers.
The deal could also help HP compete with tech rivals such as Cisco Systems Inc and gain new access to Asian markets, particularly in China.
Cisco currently sells about half of all commercial wireless networking gear worldwide, UBS analyst Amitabh Passi said. He estimated that HP and Aruba combined would account for 20 percent of global sales for such systems.
HP is seeking to expand its tech portfolio for business customers at a time when it is preparing to split into two companies — one focused on selling computer systems and software to businesses, and the other selling PCs and printers.
That is part of HP chief executive Meg Whitman’s plan for confronting a recent decline in sales.
Buying Aruba gives HP “a faster growing, higher margin business that fills a portfolio need without ‘betting the ranch,’” Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi wrote in a note on Monday.
With the Aruba deal, HP is paying US$24.67 in cash for each Aruba share. Boards of both companies have approved the deal, which they said would be worth about US$3 billion after factoring in cash and debt on Aruba’s balance sheet. Aruba had US$729 million in sales last year.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure