Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman Refutes Michael Dell's Theory

Michael Dell recently wrote an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal in which he suggested that companies that go for a split do so at the cost of innovation. Though advice from competitors is the last thing a company considers before taking a decision, it might be worth to know what Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE: HPQ) thinks of this subtle advice from Dell.

“Major players like IBM and Hewlett-Packard are selling off and splitting up—huge disruption at a time when long-term innovation and customer focus have never been more critical. Such moves may boost share values in the short term, but too often at the expense of real innovation” Dell wrote.

CNBC’s David Faber recently interviewed Hewlett-Packard CEO, Meg Whitman, where he asked for her opinion on the op-ed by Dell.

"I'll tell you it's quite the opposite at HP. Our innovation engine is the best that it has been in a decade and frankly separating these two companies will allow each company to focus on the innovation that is most important to their companies within an organization," Whitman said.

"You have to remember printing and PCs, a third of their business is to consumers through Best Buy and major retailers across the world and major websites, and they are now going to be deeply focused on what’s the innovation like in immersive computing, like in 3D printing, that’s going to make a difference to their business."

"While on the data center side, we are all over the software defined data center, what is going to help CIOs for businesses of any size, reduce cost, become more agile [...] So, I would argue that focusing is going to lead to even more on target innovation for those customers."

Shares traded recently at $39.02, up 3.7 percent.