HP: Back To Basics?

At Gartner's ITXpo conference, HP CEO Mark Hurd promised the company will "double down" on the company's core hardware, software, and service areas. If I interpret Hurd's comments correctly, "doubling down" means not only will HP not sell off its printer, PC, or any of its other mainstay businesses as has been rumored for months but the company will actually invest more attention and resources in those areas. However, Hurd made no specific commitments, and his statements raise plenty of questions about how the company's future growth plans.Of course, it is not that HP has really stopped investing in PCs, servers, software, or services. Even as the company was laying of a upwards of 14,000 employees over the last year, HP has continued to acquire other companies. Not that acquisitions have always put HP in the best market position. Look no further than the Compaq deal and you will see my point, but I digress.

Whether Hurd is serious about honing HP's focus on key company technologies and how the company will play the services game going forward remains to be seen. However, it does appear from the Peregrine and AppIQ investments that HP is focused on extending its management software capabilities in general, and in the case of the Peregrine acquisition, BSM in particular.