HP schedules divorce for 1 November

New logos completed - date for official break-up of HP set

HP CEO Meg Whitman has revealed that the company will be formally split in two on 1 November.

The separation, which had been mooted before Whitman was appointed CEO in 2011, will see the company separate its low-margin PC business, including home and office printers - once HP's most profitable line - as well as 3D printers, from its enterprise-focused rump.

The PC and printers business will be called HP Inc, while the rest of the company will be called Hewlett Packard Enterprise. Both companies will maintain their headquarters in the same Palo Alto building, which will be divided between the two companies.

The announcement was made to investors at the company's annual meeting. These investors will become owners of two Fortune 50 businesses. The split will cost between $2bn and $3bn, including about $1.3bn for accountancy fees, consulting, legal and real estate this year, and a further $500m in similar costs in the next financial year.

Both sides of HP will continue to shed jobs, HP chief financial officer Cathie Lesjak has warned. Meg Whitman will become president and CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, as well as chairman of the HP Inc board. Dion Weisler, meanwhile, will be president and CEO of HP Inc.

Weisler, currently executive vice president in charge of printing and personal systems, will take control of a business with revenues of around $57.3bn in the year to the end of October 2014. Whitman's Hewlett Packard Enterprise, meanwhile, posted revenues of $57.6bn.

"Both companies will be well capitalised and expect to have investment grade credit ratings and capital structures optimised to reflect their distinct growth opportunities and cash flow profiles," HP claimed at the time the break-up announcement was made in October last year.

The company has also completed the important business of designing new logos for the new companies, with Hewlett Packard Enterprise's logo consisting of little more than a greeny-blue rectangle, and HP Inc widely expected to imaginatively retain HP's current logo.