HP’s Meg Whitman ready to spend on acquisitions

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By Larry Banks

HP CEO Meg Whitman said she isn’t overly concerned about the high valuations being bestowed on many startups these days. If a company is worth buying, Meg Whitman says, HP will buy it, according to Bloomberg.

HP ready to spend big

When asked if the current mergers and acquisitions environment is expensive, Whitman said:

“Certainly in the startup environment and Silicon Valley, it seems expensive to me. But I will say if you find a company that’s completely disruptive and has a chance to take big share from an incumbent, those valuations might be worth it“.

M&A is a sensitive topic at HP today. Before Whitman, HP earned a reputation for buying the wrong companies (Palm) or paying too much (Autonomy), or also not doing a good job with the firm after it’s acquired (in the case of LeftHand Networks).

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She was understandably cautious about acquisitions for the first two years in the job, cutting costs and trying to improve HP’s balance sheet. She made a few acquisitions last year, buying Eucalyptus for an undisclosed sum.

But in 2015, Whitman and HP have been spending cash on acquiring companies.

Two weeks ago for instance, HP closed a $2.7 billion acquisition of Aruba Networks, the largest to date under Whitman’s leadership. And 2015 the company has made two other buys, Voltage Security and ConteXtream, both for undisclosed amounts.

SOURCE: Business Insider.

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