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HP's Whitman: No plans to break up company

In response to a question from an analyst during an earnings call, Hewlett-Packard chief reiterates the company's "better together" strategy.

Brooke Crothers Former CNET contributor
Brooke Crothers writes about mobile computer systems, including laptops, tablets, smartphones: how they define the computing experience and the hardware that makes them tick. He has served as an editor at large at CNET News and a contributing reporter to The New York Times' Bits and Technology sections. His interest in things small began when living in Tokyo in a very small apartment for a very long time.
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Brooke Crothers

During Hewlett-Packard's first-quarter earnings conference call, CEO Meg Whitman clarified the company's "better together" strategy.

"We have no plans to to break up the company," Whitman said, in response to a question from an analyst. "I feel quite strongly that we are better and stronger together."

She reiterated this was part of HP's "better together" strategy. In short, Whitman is saying that HP as a whole is more than the sum total of its parts.

There has been speculation in the past weeks that HP's board is reconsidering a break up. This would appear to refute those rumors.

In her opening statement, Whitman said that PCs are a business that HP "needs to be in" and "nobody understands computing like HP from the data center to the device."

The "future is convergence," and nobody can "bring the pieces" better than HP, she said.

HP reported first-quarter earnings of $1.6 billion, or 63 cents a share, on revenue of $28.4 billion, down 6 percent from a year ago.