Dive Brief:
- Tech behemoths Dell and HP are taking vastly different approaches to the evolving enterprise tech market.
- Dell is merging with EMC to form what it hopes will become a major solutions provider for enterprise IT, while HP broke into smaller pieces last year in an effort to become faster and more innovative.
- Both companies are maneuvering as the consumer PC market on which they once depended continues its rapid decline, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
Dive Insight:
Dell founder and CEO Michael Dell believes in the strength of a huge company as well as the economies of scale that come along with it. But Hewlett Packard Enterprise CEO Meg Whitman, who also serves as a chairwoman for HP Inc., believes smaller companies are better able to pivot, evolve and innovate.
"It’s hard to be fast when you’re big and in so many different businesses," Whitman said in an a Wall Street Journal interview.
The two companies are already preparing to do battle with each other over a similar customer base. In 2015, HPE dominated cloud IT infrastructure, holding 15.7% of the market. Dell and EMC followed close behind with 10.6% and 7.6%, respectively. Once the merger is complete, Dell/EMC is poised to overtake HPE in market share.
The $62 billion Dell/EMC merger is expected to close by October.
Last month, HPE reportedly spoke to "several hundred" Dell-EMC partners during HPE’s Discover Conference in hopes of recruiting them to sell the HPE product portfolio. The company also offered "special accommodations" to allow partners to move into the HPE channel program at the same level they are at with Dell-EMC.
