Revenues for the combined companies were $72 billion for the fiscal year that ended October 31, 2002. Chairman and CEO Carly Fiorina leads HP, which has corporate headquarters in Palo Alto, California (www.hp.com).
HP's four core business groups are:.
Enterprise Systems Group (ESG).
Imaging and Printing Group (IPG) .
HP Services (HPS) .
Personal Systems Group (PSG).
HP market position is number one globally in inkjet, all-in-one and single-function printers, mono and color laser printers, large-format printing, scanners, print servers, ink and laser supplies.
1.2 The Product .
HP is the leading provider of printing and imaging solutions for both business and consumer use. IPG includes printer hardware, all-in-ones, digital imaging devices such as cameras and scanners, and associated supplies and accessories. It also is expanding into the commercial printing market (www.hp.com). .
For our analysis we will concentrate on the ink printers segment. With nearly 40% of the worldwide market, HP's printer business has single handedly carried the computing behemoth through several tumultuous years. Dubbed the company's "crown jewel" by CEO Carleton S. Fiorina, the printing division chipped in 28% of HP's $72 billion in sales in 2002 and 105% of its $3.1 billion in operating profits -- other units lost money. The cash cow stabilized HP's passage through the tech downturn, not to mention last year's controversial acquisition of Compaq Computer Corp. "It has been everything for HP over the last two years," says Bear, Stearns & Co. analyst Andrew J. Neff (Elgin, 2001).
2.0 Political.
2.1 Regulation.
The computer electronic industry must meet standards established by the Federal Communications Commission, and similar agencies in other countries. An example of a standard would be the regulation on the maximum amount of radiation emitted by monitors. Companies in the computer industry must receive the appropriate certification before shipping computers.
