I’ve always though Mark Hurd was a good executive. He righted an ship that was as far off course as an executive (Carly) could take it. He made it though the Board of Directors scandal unscathed for the most part…hard to do.

Over the past few years, he has been building the company through acquisitions to closely resemble the IBM model, Software and Services. It’s hard to argue with a model of success. Let’s discuss the pro’s and con’s.

Dennis Howlett doesn’t think it is as qood of a services arm as IBM Services, but Rome wasn’t built in a day. He argues that PWC which IBM got for a song compared to what HP couldn’t close it on was a better buy. I agree here. Also on the semi-con side is that it was pointed out to me that HP would keep it as a separate arm of the company. I’ve seen this not work time and time again as it allows the company to hold onto it’s culture rather than to integrate, which will happen sooner or later. It’s better to take your medicine and get it over with.

On the pro side, Tom Foremski thinks it is a good fit.

NOTE: this supports my IBM emulation theory.

Foremski’s Take:

• - HP CEO Mark Hurd is seeking to capitalize on HP’s renewed momentum and take on rival IBM by beefing up IT services.
• - EDS has a solid IT services business with a lot of government contracts that could help balance out a possible recession in other industry sectors.
• - There might seem to be a large cultural difference between the two companies but Compaq, which HP acquired in 2002, was headquartered in Texas.
• - HP would still need to gain a high-end IT consultancy business in order to compete with IBM.
• - Another area that HP still needs to address is in its middleware software business.
• - The timing is quite good. It is best to try and complete such a large acquisition and integration during times of economic slowdown so that the combined entity is firing on all cylinders when boom times come around again.

On the neither Pro or Con side, Judith Hurwitz pointed out to me that EDS has a significant mainframe business, something that HP has steadfastly kept out of until now being committed to the x86 architecture. She also told me of the ties to CA which EDS brings to the table. This is either an addition or a distraction, time will tell.

Nevertheless, as the old saying goes, no one ever got fired for buying IBM. It seems like emulating it is also a pretty good strategy.

Looks like the WSJ either agrees with me or read my blog….

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