H-P Launches New Desktop PC Amid Buzz About Spinoff

Hewlett-Packard announced a new desktop computer on Monday just days after the company suggested it had plans to spin off the PC unit.

AP Hewlett Packard

H-P

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[HPQ  Loading...      ()   ] said the HP Compaq 8200 Elite All-in-One Business Desktop is aimed at both corporate and individual customers.

The company has not yet made a decision on what to do with its PC business, executive vice president of the personal systems group Todd Bradley told CNBC Monday.

Bradley was the head of Palm, maker of Web OS software and devices, which H-P

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[HPQ  Loading...      ()   ] bought in April 2010.

He stressed that no decision has been made on the PC business, even as H-P has discussed its plan to focus on the enterprise side of the market, especially in cloud computing .

"What we said was we’d stop manufacturing Web OS devices," he said. "We're not getting out of the tablet market."

However, the company is "looking at a variety of strategic alternatives to ownership of [the personal systems group], from spin-off to nothing," Bradley said. After eight to 12 weeks of study, company officials will "sit down with the board, take them through the results and I'm sure they will make the best decision for shareholders."

He would not comment on the company's plan to buy Autonomy for $10.2 billion. But he said last week's media reports of H-P's plans for the PC business were "mediocre at best. We are very aggressively growing the PC business. We are looking at how to position the PC business for growth."

Bradley said whatever H-P does with its PC business, he'll be staying with the unit.

"There are plenty of ridiculous rumors on the Internet today, all unfounded," said the executive vice president of the personal systems group, the unit in charge of PCs. "My intent is to work through this process with H-P. At the time whatever action is determined, my intent is to lead that. If it stays with H-P I will continue to run it."

Shares of H-P, which fell 20 percent on Friday, rebounded 3.6 percent Monday on the New York Stock Exchange.

— Reuters contributed to this article.

Correction: A previous version of this story misspelled the name of HP's executive vice president of the personal systems group, Todd Bradley.