HP abandons bid to acquire PwC

Faced with a decline in third-quarter earnings that took a toll on its stock price, Hewlett-Packard last week bowed out of its bid to acquire consulting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

HP CEO Carly Fiorina said last week that ironing out the PwC deal had become a distraction for the company. According to some analysts, the abandonment of the deal is a positive step for HP, which will now be able to focus its efforts on its core competencies and services.

In that spirit, HP forged ahead last week with the unveiling of two products.

HP introduced SMART Plug-Ins (SPIs) for the HP OpenView platform that will provide telecommunications customers and service providers with mobile e-services management software for wireless infrastructures.

The software was developed with wireless partners Nextenso, Nokia, and Tantau.

HP also integrated its Virtual Vault e-security software for Unix and modified it to operate across a mixed OS base, including Windows NT, Sun Solaris, Linux, and HP-UX.