HP and EDS

claidheamhmor's post about HP (mainly a hardware manufacturer) buying EDS, a service company got me searching for more opinions. Mainly the opinions are negative, with many analysts stating that HP would not be able to integrate the new company to a full effect, at least straight away. This was echoed when they announced that full integration will not occur, rather a more different agreement will be drawn up and adhered to.

Here are some of the opinions:

Business Week seems the most cautious and pessimistic. It wisely points out that EDS has made a great deal of mistakes regarding trends in the services sector and is widely behind its competitors.They also question the wisdom of HP CEO Mark Hurd in this deal.

Wall Street Journal point out similar concerns as Business Week, but they remain more neutral in their outlook.

I think the easiest way to sum it up from the articles so far, is that EDS is gaining a great deal here. HP is trying to compete with the more successful companies in the services market. Will it succeed and the more behind companies of HP and EDS will emerge as winners, maybe not now, but certainly in a few years?

Tough to say, especially as I am no industry pundit. I do work in the IT industry however, and have worked for IT service companies, one of them being EDS. I am very certain that despite any optimistic and pessimistic outlooks, the IT industry, especially the services sector will have a 'interesting' time.  Of course, just because it may not be nice, it does not mean it won't be interesting.

I would love to be at least a partial beneficiary for the purchase price - $13.9 billion is nothing to frown at.