Seismic Shift by the Giant- The HP Story

It is said that a giant must fall either by force or by self-decision. Something of this sorts happened recently when HP (Hewlett-Packard), the largest seller of personal computers and laptops, decided to venture into a more profitable field of softwares by buying Autonomy, Britain’s largest software company, and sell their hardware units. This was expected from the giant as there is more respect in taking retirement than being thrown out of competition.

Youngistan meri jaan:

With the exponential growth of new computer companies like Dell and Lenovo due to their charming add campaigns and products, HP surely has lost its name as the mogul of computer hardwares. In developing markets like India, Dell has overtaken HP with its excellent advertising strategy targeting the youth (especially the college students). Dell’s marketing strategies have been very innovative; personally I like the idea of creating your own laptop online, whereas HP has stuck to the old school of thinking. Proof of this: just check the number of people who own an XPS in NITK!

Palmed Off:

Adding salt to the injury was the failure of Palm, HP’s attempt to make a name in the lucrative tablet business. HP tried its best to challenge the likes of Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics, currently the top two tablet making companies, with their TouchPad but it failed miserably due to hardware problems, and lack of applications when compared to iPad and GalaxyTab.  Continuing to sell its own mobile devices ‘was no longer in the interest of HP and its shareholders’, in the words of Mr Apotheker, CEO, HP. To put it more bluntly, the business was haemorrhaging cash and would have continued to do so. But HP was lucky to have one good news from Palm, the success of webOS, which they are planning to get licensed to other companies or, extreme measures, sell it off too.

Autonomy:

Now let’s get down to the real business. The acquisition of Autonomy is a much bolder attempt to take HP into higher-margin territory. And a dear one: HP is paying the equivalent of 15% of its own current market capitalisation for a revenue increase of 1%. But Autonomy is the market leader in software to sift through “unstructured” data, such as documents, e-mails, photographs and phone calls. The quantity of such data has exploded: more than 80% of a typical company’s information is now unstructured! Firms who are involved in such digital piles have done well- Autonomy was hardly affected from the economic crisis. Proof of the earlier statement would be that Autonomy, along with its other acquisitions, has increased its revenue by 55% in just 5 years, this with the economic crisis in existence !    

De ja vu:

After hearing HP’s case, one tends to remember a similar story which took place a few years back with another PC giant- IBM. Such radical moves were taken by IBM, which has surely taken them to the right direction.

New House Problems:

The new HP will be much less of a company selling gear to consumers than one building IT systems for companies and helping them manage their growing pile of digital information. But this transformation will be a very tough one. Apothekar having produced average quarterly results, called for patience saying that this shift is a multi-quarter effort, but unluckily the markets haven’t paid heed to his comments as shares of HP have taken a beating since the deal was struck. In the short run HP maybe criticised for the decision but in the long run it might turn out to be profitable, and there will be numerous corporate raiders who love to takeover HP and play the game in their own way.

Technical Clubs any one ?

Another week gone by and nothing changes in the electrical dept. The prof who loves to throw out kids continues doing so with same zeal and fervour as before, and sadly for the one who thinks his subject is easy, students also have the same view and hence attendance in his class is equal to the number of sane politicians in our country(somewhere close to nothing).We realised he still takes classes when one day in the lab he invited a student to attend his class,the student mutedly rejected his invitation.A lab assistant made a joke out of herself when she told us to bring our own strippers as her stripper was not for general use(later we realised she was talking about a wire stripper !).
Last week showed us how we 2nd years were desperate to get into the 4 'Technical' Clubs (now please dont ask me why I didnt mention roto).How desperate were we ? we filled resumes as if they were some form to avail a million dollars,we didnt mind leaving our facebook and gaming dens late at midnight to give those 'interviews'.Interviews and self-descriptions happened at places ranging from the very normal Main Building(MB) to distracting places like Night Canteen(NC) . Personally I liked the selection process of EFOREA (e-cell,they hate being called a club),they were serious and professional(and I somehow managed to scrape through their gruelling interviews).Other tech clubs-CSI,IE,IEEE and ISTE-had interviews asking questions varying from ICs and markets to questions like 'victoria or her secret'.Every person hoped to have some known senior in the panel in order to have a smoother interview.Jugaad's were done not only for oneself but also for friends.Many weighed their options in terms of number of good-looking girls(god knows how they reached at a conclusion.NC made a killing from people who missed their dinner everyday and from those who were forced to put treat. Every club wanted to be at the top of the preference list and put full effort in doing so. Final round made us,2nd years, feel as if we were really in demand,with many of us receiving late night calls from the convenors to chose their club over others. It was like a fish market where everybody wanted the biggest catch for the best price. The results came out yesterday, making many happy and breaking hearts of many more. Many were congratulated whereas, many were told its not the end of the world. Seniors were thanked as well as cursed, but in the end everything that happened just happened.The guys who didnt apply at all lived their mortal lives as it came(they call themselves the No club club-NCC).
Well amidst all this drama on campus there was another drama going on in India, Anna Hazare. The hunger strike caught a lot of eyes in college as people went hungry.Realised they went hungry because of the degrading mess food rather than, in support of Anna. People protested outside our college, only to realise our college authorities are 'the wall' and, happily filled their stomachs at Samudra Darshan and carried on somewhere else. Sports was something which wasnt spoken that much,but Indians playing at England did better publicity than the rotoract and DDFC guys.Such an exciting week had to have an amazing end which it did.Eating dinner with drunk guys,single umbrella in heavy rain giving shelter to 3 burly guys,using a plastic sack as raincoat and then taking lift in the NC van from the girls block.This summed up the show which took place last night. Now as everything is over,its time for introduction to the clubs and subsequent treats and exclusive google groups. This week wont be forgotten by many for a long time. And in the hope that I come up with something more sensible to write, Goodbye.

the horrible beginning ...

This is one of those moments when you want to say something but dont know what to say. Having twitter and facebook as distractions surely isnt helping in the blogging cause !
Walking across the highway to my department(electrical) everyday with either the scorching sun or the weeping clouds in addition to the filthy underpass always gives evil thoughts of bunking classes. We were told last year itself that our department had the craziest profs but it was after the 3 weeks in 2nd year that we came face to face with the reality. The most feared professor being Mr.I R Rao(yes,he isnt a doctorate and yet is the most respected !).From day one he started giving us vocabulary classes along with his job of teaching us circuit theory. He showed us his inside devil when a poor boy was thrown out for moving his table !(and later being a guttery bag of scum).He taught us a new abbreviation for useless students : NFTE(not fit for technical education).Students are so scared of his wrath that none have the guts to even blink for a second, scared that they might be thrown out for sleeping ! From one extreme lets to go another extreme called Dr.G S Punekar whose main profession seems to be storytelling rather than teaching Electromagnetic theory. He somehow knows the biography of all his ex-students ! Then there has to be a teacher who is never confident of himself which brings in our fac-ad Dr.P Parthiban who seems to be teaching the wall on the back rather than us. One tends to forget we have a prof called Dr. D Gaonkar as he himself is that disinterested on what is going on the class. Its impossible to not have a mallu prof in your faculty if you are in south india and welcome our math prof Dr. S George who behaves like a kid on his birthday(super-hyper !). Dr. T Moger is the most entertaining prof with is sleazy smile(especially when he looks at girls !) and those regular raising of eyebrows and telling every class that his subject doesnt need to be taught(obvious when he is teaching us measurements). In between all this there are those irritating lab assistants who expect us to perform experiments without touching wires ! They seem like a bunch of scared animals who expect one of their breed to be hunted everyday ! This somehow sums up my crazy department which is a topic of jokes for the rest of the college.
Coming back to my hostel room seems like being in heaven with the DC++ and lan connection(and the regular weekend torrent download). The CS and DOTA communities never seem to take much time in settling down and gaming their way to 'glory'(said by one of my friends).Water problems started from day 1 and to the rescue came the magic tap which somehow had water 24x7. People who didnt know about it enjoyed their stinking lives and muddy clothes (and many still do !).All the oaths to study regularly had started and in a week it was forgotten. This somehow sums up the starting of my 2nd year in college and with the 'holy tech club' recruitments starting i have something to write for next week !