Samsung is selling off its printer division, complete with a huge library of patents, to HP for the sum of $1.05 billion (around £760 million, AU$1.4 billion).
The deal is the largest printer-related acquisition HP has ever made, and is expected to be sealed within the next year, providing the usual regulatory scrutiny doesn't find any issues.
It will net HP around 6,500 of Samsung's patents pertaining to printing, and some 6,000 Samsung employees will be moving across to HP, a quarter of whom are engineers, as the Wall Street Journal reports.
HP noted that the acquisition would help it disrupt the copier industry, an arena which hasn't seen any innovation of note in 'decades'. The company further observed that many copiers in use today are outdated machines which are a liability and can be replaced by HP's 'superior' multifunction printers (MFPs).
Breakthrough devices
HP said that Samsung has a "formidable portfolio" of A3-capable MFPs, and that integrating these business devices with HP's PageWide tech will "create a breakthrough portfolio of printing solutions with the industry's best device, document, and data security."
Dion Weisler, president and CEO of HP, commented: "When we became a separate company just 10 months ago, it enabled us to become nimble and focus on accelerating growth and reinventing industries. We are doing this with 3D printing and the disruption of the $12 trillion [around £9 trillion, AU$16 trillion] traditional manufacturing industry, and now we are going after the $55 billion [around £41 billion, AU$73 billion] copier space."
After the deal has closed next year, Samsung has pledged to make an equity investment in HP of between $100 million (around £75 million, AU$135 million) to $300 million (around £225 million, AU$400 million).
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