Can HP print money with $1bn Samsung deal?

Or has it lost the ability to innovate?

HP Inc has announced the acquisition of Samsung Electronics' printer business in a deal valued at $1.05bn.

The move is strategically significant as the largest print deal in HP's history - a segment long identified with the company's own track record in innovation.

"When we became a separate company just 10 months ago, it enabled us to become nimble and focus on accelerating growth and reinventing industries," said Dion Weisler, president and CEO of HP.

"We are doing this with 3D printing and the disruption of the $12tr traditional manufacturing industry, and now we are going after the $55bn copier space. The acquisition of Samsung's printer business allows us to deliver print innovation and create entirely new business opportunities with far better efficiency, security, and economics for customers."

However, one of the reasons for splitting Hewlett-Packard into two companies, HP Inc and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE), was to create two distinct, $56bn areas of focus after years of Hewlett-Packard being seen as a beige box full of unrelated businesses - the company that wasn't Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, Google, or Apple.

Of course, industry big hitters have long bought their way to market dominance and consolidation, but while the deal bags HP some 6,500 patents and 1,300 researchers and engineers, the impression that it is now buying in innovation may prove hard to shake.