Samsung Electronics announced yesterday that it had reached an agreement to sell its printer business to HP for $1.05 billion.
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While HP has always been a leading name in printing, it has thus far failed to capture one important arm of the market: photocopying, an industry valued at £41.3 billion annually.
The deal includes the large number of patents Samsung has on printer technology – reportedly around 6,500 – and it’s also the largest acquisition ever made in the world of printers.
The transaction, which is subject to regulatory approval, is expected to close within 12 months, the companies said on Monday.
Last week Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Co. announced that it would spin off a big chunk of its business software line-up in an $8.8 billion deal with Micro Focus International PLC.
Samsung, based in Suwon, South Korean, will spin off its Printing Business Unit into a separate company November 1, pending shareholder approval.
However, on Monday the company said its printer business brought in 2 trillion Korean won (around $1.8 billion) in 2015. Samsung produces the printers in China and has more than 50 sales offices globally. Samsung will source printers from HP and continue to market in Korea under the Samsung brand.
“When we became a separate company just 10 months ago, it enabled us to become nimble and focus on accelerating growth and reinventing industries“, HP CEO Dion Weisler said in a statement. It further said that customers were fed up with broken copiers and this acquisition would help HP invest in better technology.
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Lee began his career at Samsung in 1991 and became president in 2009, then vice chairman in 2013. Samsung also agreed to buy between $100 million and $300 million in HP shares through open-market purchases after the business sale is completed.
