Boston (Massachusetts), Sep 12: In the largest ever print acquisition in HP Incs history to accelerate growth opportunities in the copier segment, the company on Monday announced a definitive agreement to acquire Samsung Electronics Co Ltds printer business for $1.05 billion. This transaction is part of a move to concentrate on its core business areas. Samsung said it expects to spin off the printing business by 1 November and for the deal to close within 12 months. Samsung’s printer business now has 6,000 employees along with 50 global sales offices and production facilities in China.
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HP said in a statement that the purchase would help it to “disrupt and reinvent” the $55 billion copier industry, a section that “hasn’t innovated in decades”.
Samsung said printers made two trillion won (£675m) in sales a year ago while HP pegged the industry as worth $55bn (£41.5bn) and believes the deal “positions HP to disrupt and reinvent” it.
Integrating Samsung’s printer business’ products, will also include their mobile-first and cloud-first user experience.
Yoon Boo-keun, the chief executive of Samsung’s consumer electronics division, said that “Samsung proceeded the deal with HPI as the U.S. firm highly evaluated Samsung’s printer business unit”.
HP will also be gaining 6,500 printing patents.
After the deal has closed next year, Samsung has pledged to make an equity investment in HP of between $100 million (around £75 million, AU$135 million) to $300 million (around £225 million, AU$400 million). This deal is also likely to benefit Canon, which has a partnership with HP in this field for over 30 years.
The merger opens up a path for HP to focus more on the copier market and get its hands on key laser-printing technology. Significantly, the United States company will also take ownership of more than 6,500 of Samsung’s patents relating to printing technologies.
Samsung has built a portfolio of A3 MFPs.
Samsung Electronics has reached an agreement to sell the entire global operations and assets of its printing business to HP.
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HP had a 36 percent share of 23 million units sold in the quarter. HP now has 36 percent of the printer business, with Epson, Brother, and Samsung in second through fourth place, respectively.
