Samsung on Wednesday issued a brief statement shooting down talk that it might buy HP’s PC business. While not overtly denying the possibility of talks, it said that the claims it had locked in a deal were “not true.” Taiwan-based sources had claimed on Monday that Samsung was talking to extra contractors to expand its business, with sources claiming that there were signs it was preparing itself to handle HP’s computer group.
HP revealed that it might sell off or spin out its PC business last week after claiming that the iPad was making PCs unsustainable. Samsung has unofficially been identified as a prime target as one of the few Windows PC designers still growing rapidly and yet large enough to swallow the costs of taking on the world’s biggest PC vendor. One estimate has put the worth of HP’s PC group at $8 billion.
At the time of the rumor, the same sources had warned that Samsung’s main obstacle would be coping with the much larger, existing contracts that HP already has. Samsung is expecting to make 10 million PCs a year, but HP would add at least 40 million more.
