SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Hewlett-Packard Co. has agreed to
buy Electronic Data Systems Corp. for about $12.6 billion in cash to build a
technology-services company that could challenge IBM.
The companies said Tuesday their boards had unanimously approved the deal,
in which EDS shareholders would get $25 per share. That is a premium of almost
25 percent over what EDS had been trading on Friday. Word of the talks emerged
Monday.
It would be HP's biggest deal in six years.
HP is the world's largest maker of personal computers, while Texas-based EDS
provides technology services to the governments and companies around the world.
The sale is expected to close in the second half of this year and more than
double HP's revenue from services, which was $16.6 billion in 2007. EDS had
$22.13 billion in revenue last year.
Their combined services business would have 210,000 employees -- although
some analysts expect HP would trim jobs -- and operations in more than 80
countries.
HP said the business would be based at EDS' headquarters in Plano, Texas,
and led by EDS chairman and Chief Executive Ronald A. Rittenmeyer.
HP said it expects the deal would produce "significant" cost savings and add
to earnings by next year.
Palo Alto-based HP and EDS had said Monday that they were in "advanced
discussions" about a possible combination without providing additional details.
In Tuesday's announcement, the companies said the deal would have an
enterprise value of $13.9 billion without defining what that included. But based
on 502.6 million EDS shares outstanding as of April 25, the acquisition would be
worth $12.57 billion.
HP ended January with nearly $10 billion in cash and has a market value of
about $115 billion.
If the deal is completed, it would be HP's biggest acquisition since it
bought Compaq Computer Corp. for $19 billion in 2002. That acquisition paved the
way for HP to supplant Dell Inc. as the world's largest PC maker.
Buying EDS would give HP more tools to challenge IBM Corp. in the lucrative
technology services field. HP already has replaced IBM as the world's largest
technology company, based on revenue.
The demand for data management and technology consulting services has
steadily grown during the past two decades as the automation of corporate
America and the rise of the Internet prompted more businesses to hire
contractors to help run their computer software and hardware.
IBM's technology services division brought in $54 billion in revenue last
year, accounting for half of the company's total sales. Combined, EDS and HP's
technology services division had about $39 billion in revenue last year.
In one of its biggest previous attempts to expand its technology services,
HP attempted to buy PricewaterhouseCoopers' consulting division in 2000. IBM
wound up buying the unit instead.
HP has been on a roll since it hired Mark Hurd as chief executive three
years ago. Propelled by earnings growth that has consistently exceeded analyst
expectations, the company's stock price has more than doubled since Hurd's
arrival.
Acquiring EDS could yield more government work for HP, which had about $500
million in prime federal contracts in fiscal 2007. EDS is far better connected,
with deals worth about $2.5 billion -- putting it among the top 10 among
government technology contractors.
Combined, HP and EDS still would lag significantly behind government
contractors like Lockheed Martin Corp. and Boeing Co.
As in many corporate marriages, cultural clashes between HP and EDS could
ruin the union, said AMR Research analyst Dana Stiffler. "Palo Alto versus Plano
wrangling will destroy any short-medium term benefit unless there's a strong
integration roadmap," she predicted.
HP earned $7.3 billion on $104 billion in revenue last year while EDS made
$716 million on $22.1 billion in revenue.
EDS has been linked with possible deals previously, including a reported
interest by Deutsche Telekom late last year and Dell before that. No suitors
ever confirmed reports that they were talking.
Former IBM salesman H. Ross Perot started EDS in 1962 to help run other
companies' computer systems -- a specialty generally known as
information-technology or IT services.
Perot sold EDS to General Motors Corp. for $2.5 billion in 1984 and
eventually became so disillusioned with how that deal worked out that he sold
his remaining EDS shares to the automaker so he could start a new rival service
bearing his name.
An outspoken billionaire, Perot became even more famous for running for U.S.
president in 1992 and 1996. GM spun off EDS as an independent company in 1996
and remained its largest customer.
EDS was riding high at the start of the decade, despite the dot-com bubble's
bursting. But in late 2002, earnings shortfalls led to investor lawsuits, a
Securities and Exchange Commission investigation, the ouster of the chief
executive, and a sharp drop in the stock price.
The company lost $1.7 billion in 2003 but gradually righted itself under CEO
Michael Jordan, a retired CBS and Westinghouse CEO. He fixed some money-losing
contracts, including a multibillion-dollar deal to build a communications
network for the Navy and Marine Corps, and began cutting costs by sending
thousands of jobs to low-cost countries such as India.
Although he hasn't seen any signs to suggest EDS has been looking for a
buyer, Jefferies & Co. analyst Joseph Vafi said the company's board might have
decided a sale would create a quicker payoff for shareholders than continuing to
try to grow the company in the highly competitive technology services industry.
Under Hurd's leadership, HP bought business software maker Mercury
Interactive Corp. for $4.9 billion in 2006 and last year paid $1.7 billion for
data management service Opsware Inc., which had sold a large chunk of its
operations to EDS in 2002.
AP Business Writers Jennifer Malloy in New York, David Koenig in Dallas and
Dibya Sarkar in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.
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