And in the buried lede department (to paraphrase the great Harry Shearer), HP buys (and likely overpays for) Autonomy.
A "lede" is the lead or first paragraph of a news story. The term "buried lede" refers to stories with headlines about one thing, but details deep in the story that are likely more interesting, important or both. And much of the reporting about HP, PCs and tablets seems to bury what I think should be the real lede: the purchase of Autonomy. Whether or not HP "overpaid," as some of the overheated coverage I've read indicates.
Why? Three reasons.
1. Autonomy is successfully selling enterprise software into a market in which enterprise spending on technology is growing, even while IT budgets are flat or in decline. (Autonomy's software supports enterprise search and what the company calls "meaning-based computing." These are areas already generating both revenues and promises of whole new classes of business solutions.)
2. Software solutions like Autonomy's, both premise-based and increasingly cloud-based, help to sell more server, storage and management hardware and services, things HP continues to sell.
3. HP needs a cultural makeover at least as much as it needs strategic refocusing, and Autonomy might be the key to both.
HP should never have bought Palm or tried to make WebOS any kind of market presence. It should have played to its historical strengths in business markets, and thrown its weight behind whichever tablet and smartphone platforms came to dominate the market. And I can't help but feel that some earlier iteration of the company would have seen that.
As I posted in this very space back in September 2006, Mark Hurd's tenure as CEO saw the undeniable death of what was once proudly known as "The HP Way." That death was certainly not all his fault, but it happened on his watch, while he held the office where the buck's supposed to stop.
What HP's customers, partners and fans need to hope for now is the arising of a "New HP Way." One that puts enterprise customer success ahead of clever corporate machinations. One that sees customer success as a path towards and not in competition with personal success and aggrandizement. (Nothing wrong with either of those, mind, as long as they're the result of good intentions and actions.)
I and everyone who cares about HP is waiting with bated breath to see if the current management team is seriously, willfully committed to such a path. Autonomy is a successful player in a tough market HP cares about a lot. The Autonomy purchase is likely HP's last, best chance at successfully reinventing itself, strategically and culturally, and recalling any of its former greatness. I'm pulling for it to succeed -- but won't be surprised if more wrenching changes precede or even preclude that success.
