HP buying Samsung Electronics' printer business for $1.05B

[pstokely]

Source: KCTV

NEW YORK (AP) - HP is buying Samsung Electronics Co.'s printer business in a transaction worth $1.05 billion.

HP Inc. said Monday that it is the largest print acquisition in the company's history and will help it go from traditional copiers to multifunction printers. HP also said the deal will strengthen its position in laser printing, which it established with Canon.

Samsung's printer business includes more than 6,500 printing patents.

The deal is expected to close within a year.

Last week Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Co. announced that it would spin off a big chunk of its business software line-up in an $8.8 billion deal with Micro Focus International PLC. Last year CEO Meg Whitman split HP's operations focused on selling business technology products from its personal computer and printer operations. At its height, the combined HP generated more than $100 billion annual revenue.

Read more: http://www.kctv5.com/story/33071073/hp-buying-samsung-electronics-printer-business-for-105b

[SleeplessinSoCal]

1. interesting.

how many here have an hp printer and a samsung phone? I am constantly rerouted to differing apps for printing which can take 1 minute or 20 depending on what apps pop up. Seems very random. Maybe this merger would make it easier to print.

[cstanleytech]

2. What would Samsung selling its printer business have to do with that?

[eggplant]

3. it wouldn't.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

14. Like a merger, hp/samsung printers is bound to alter their systems.

There is a probability of a change in how they connect. That's all.

[eggplant]

4. Ugh. The author of the article cares much more about patents than workers.

Sad, but a sign of the times.

[Renew Deal]

5. There is information about patents. Is there information about workers?

[jmowreader]

8. The workers that are going to get screwed are in Japan

HP already makes its printers in China; this won't change that.

[pstokely]

9. don't you mean Korea

Samsung is Korean, but probably some American workers as well

[jmowreader]

10. Nope. China.

The printers HP sells now contain print engines made in China by Canon, and there are several factories that do this: a factory in Dalian makes toner cartridges, and factories in Suzhou and Zhongshan make the printer mechanics. The printers Samsung sells now contain print engines they make themselves in China at Samsung Electronics (Shandong) Digital Printing Co., Ltd. (Yes, I had to look that up.) Now that HP owns a print engine manufacturer, they don't need Canon anymore.

[eggplant]

12. Thanks for the insight.

I agree, being able to bring development in-house is the only thing that makes sense. I wonder if they had a falling out with Canon. I doubt that the IP (patents) really matter either. If there was existing infringement, Samsung would have been all over it already.

As for reducing cost, I doubt that's a huge factor -- hardware has always been a loss leader in HP's printer biz. They make ALL of their money on paper and ink (toner). And it is a shitload. But design improvements that they don't have to share with the other kids could help them in their fight against third party ink/toner losses. And I guess the IP could actually help there as well. Hmm.

Disclosure: It's been a long time since I was in that side of tech, so my speculations are off the top of my head and not informed by actual, you know, knowledge. Take it for what it's worth.

They *will* inevitably shed engineering jobs, and the corresponding redundant management and support staff. Who and where they are is anyone's guess, though.

[bucolic_frolic]

6. Patents were supposed to save Kodak from bankruptcy

but patents are like 500 horsepower and tires that go 135 miles an hour

one never uses them

[jmowreader]

13. If Kodak's cameras hadn't sucked for the last fifty years, patents may have worked

This is a timeline of Kodak cameras from the 1970s to the late 1980s.



All these cameras were very basic fixed-focus, fixed-exposure cameras. You could conceivably get a good picture out of one of them - if you were exceptionally skilled. At the same time, the Japanese were selling fully-adjustable cameras that made it easy to get a good picture. So, by the time the digital camera revolution came about everyone was looking the other way.

How Kodak could have been saved:
1. Understand that everyone hates Kodak film cameras and will hate Kodak digital cameras.
2. Further understand that a lot of people love Kodak film.
3. Develop a line of digital camera sensors and OEM them to every camera manufacturer on the planet..."introducing the Canon EOS 1D with Kodak Digital Technology!"
4. Advertise the hell out of this connection..."Capture your Kodak Moments on a camera with Kodak Digital Technology!"
5. Consider film to be an art medium and sell it as such. (As long as they're making motion picture film they can make still camera film fairly easily because the equipment to make film doesn't know what kind it's turning out; just put the right chemicals in the coating machine and let fly.)

[jmowreader]

7. The whole story isn't in this article

The "traditional copiers to multifunction printers" thing is a load of crap - HP makes good multifunction printers already. And if you examine Samsung's line, there's nothing there HP doesn't sell and a few things that are not there (11x17 printers and big - as in "60 feet long with 50-gallon ink cartridges, comes with a free forklift to load paper into it" - inkjets come to mind) that HP already sells.

That's not why HP wanted Samsung.

A laser printer contains two major subsystems: the controller and the marking engine. The marking engine is the part that puts toner on paper. The controller is a circuit board in the bottom of the machine that does what it sounds like. HP has always bought Canon engines. Samsung, OTOH, makes their own engines. HP's Samsung purchase will allow them to release a whole new line of printers with in-house-made engines...which will cut down their costs at least a little.

Expect a reasonable increase in Canon shorting. Canon's diversified enough they'll survive HP leaving them, but in the short-term it's going to give their profits a squeeze.

[Wilms]

11. More at WSJ.

It is the engine, but it's also about the A3 paper size.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/hp-to-acquire-samsung-printer-business-in-1-billion-deal-1473667204