Report: HP To Combine PC, Printer Business Units

Hewlett-Packard is planning to announce a restructuring Tuesday that will move its Imaging and Printing Group (IPG) into its PC-making Personal Systems Group, according to a report from All Things Digital.

As part of the re-organization, Vyomesh Joshi, executive vice president of IPG and a 32-year HP veteran, will leave the company. Todd Bradley, executive vice president of PSG, will lead the combined business unit, according to the All Things Digital report.

An HP spokesperson declined to comment on the report.

In 2005 under former HP Chairman and CEO Carly Fiorina, HP merged IPG and PSG and created a new division, called the Imaging and Personal Systems Group (IPSG), which was led by Joshi.

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But Mark Hurd, after taking over for Fiorina as CEO, reversed that decision just six months later. "By managing PSG and IPG as separate, highly focused organizations, we can further sharpen our competitiveness and improve our cost structure," Hurd said by way of explanation.

At the time, Joshi returned to leading IPG, and Todd Bradley, former president and CEO of palmOne, joined HP and took over the top spot in PSG.

Last month in HP's fiscal first quarter earnings call, CEO Meg Whitman hinted at a restructuring and said cost cutting would be HP's top near term priority.

"It’s clear from both our revenue and margin profile that our current cost base just isn’t supportable. On the current trajectory, we just won’t have the capacity that we need to invest," Whitman said in the call.

In Q1, IPG revenue fell 7 percent year over year and revenue fell in the commercial and consumer segments for both printer hardware and supplies.

Last month at HP's Global Partner Conference, Joshi said HP wants partners to move up in the printing and imaging technology stack into more lucrative business areas.

"If you are only in hardware, we want you to move to supplies," Joshi said at the event. "If you are only in hardware and supplies, we want you to move to services. If you are in hardware, supplies and services, we want you to move to solutions."