SINGAPORE - The origins of Agilent Technologies offer a significant pointer to the latest corporate split to hit the technology scene.
Agilent is the test and measurement group that was spun off from Hewlett-Packard (HP) in 1999, raising US$2.1 billion (S$2.68 billion) in what was then the largest initial public offering in Silicon Valley's history.
HP was first a test and measurement company 75 years ago when it invented the oscillator, an electronic device used for the purpose of generating a signal.
After Agilent was carved out, HP was left as a computer, storage and imaging business.
Today, this includes printers, PCs, tablets, servers and networking and cloud storage services.
The next milestone for HP will be October next year, when it will break up into two separate companies, HP Enterprise and HP Inc, in a move announced this week.
The reasons for creating Agilent in 1999 were as valid then as the reasons for the latest split: to become more competitive and able to respond to market opportunities quickly.
The two new HP entities - empowered by their own financial resources and with added focus and independence - will be more agile, able to identify and pursue fresh business opportunities and merger-and-acquisition targets.
What does the split mean?
Consumers can continue to buy HP PCs, laptops, tablets and printers. Customer service will stay the same.
Looking for an HP smartphone? Unlikely. As a latecomer, HP will find it tough to crack the dominance of Apple, Samsung and the emerging low-cost Android phone makers.
Besides, HP last year jettisoned some pieces of the Palm phone business that it had bought in 2010 to South Korea's LG, which intends to use the technology in smart TVs.
HP Inc can look at related businesses such as 3D printing, which is largely used by corporate customers, such as aircraft makers and engineering firms, to produce prototype and concept models.
Prices of 3D printers and materials are expected to fall, allowing manufacturers to quickly move into the production of items ranging from spare parts for turbine engines to toothbrushes.
US research firm Canalys forecasts that it will be a US$16.2 billion (S$20.7 billion) market by 2018, up from US$3.8 billion this year.
At the other end of the spectrum is the 3D consumer market which is beginning to emerge.
Largely a hobbyist market, it has potential for consumers to make anything they want, like toys, jewellery and even clothes.
HP Enterprise will focus on the competitive business of cloud, storage and networking services which make up a firm's information technology infrastructure.
It will have to work harder to win corporate customers as it has lost its one big advantage of a one-stop shop.
Previously, its corporate customers found it convenient to buy hardware and software from one company. Soon, they will have to look at different companies for PCs and PC servers.
One area that HP Enterprise can look into is the Internet of Things (IoT), which refers to the ever-growing network of physical objects that are linked to the Internet and to each other.
HP has had a presence in Singapore since 1970. Today, it has sales and marketing, logistics and manufacturing activities here.
Its printing manufacturing plant here makes inks, printheads and printers. It also makes servers here. Among its contracts with the public sector is the Government Cloud, a private cloud service which it won in 2012 with SingTel.
In the run-up to the break-up, HP will be axing 55,000 workers.
Inevitably, some of these workers will be from Singapore.
This article was first published on October 8, 2014.
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