Dive Brief:

• Hewlett Packard Enterprise is reportedly in discussions with Thoma Bravo LLC to sell its software division, according to a Reuters report.
• The company could earn between $8 billion to $10 billion for the unit, according to the report. 
• Several other private equity firms, including Vista Equity Partners Management LLC, Carlyle Group LLP and TPG Capital LP made offers, though Thoma Bravo’s was reportedly the highest. Sources also stressed that no deal is certain at this point.

Dive Insight:

Rumors of an HPE software asset sale first surfaced in July. CEO Meg Whitman has worked to better focus HPE on enterprise sales and to get out of slow growth areas since HP filed to split into two companies last July. If the company does indeed divest its software assets, HPE would be positioned to focus on networking, storage and data centers, among other things. 

Thoma Bravo already owns a number of software companies, which could make incorporating HPE’s software division easier. The assets include several companies HP acquired over the last decade, such as Autonomy, Mercury Interactive and Vertica Systems. 

HPE has struggled to rein in expenses and reinvent itself amid the shifting technology landscape, and shedding underachievers has been part of the plan. Autonomy, Mercury and Vertica were all large-dollar purchases that failed to produce much ROI for HPE. 

HPE is not the only company looking to trim non-core assets. In June, Dell announced that Francisco Partners and Elliott Management Corporation would acquire the Dell Software Group.