Hewlett-Packard planning breakup to become nimbler

Hewlett-Packard is splitting into two companies, using a breakup to become nimbler after failing to keep up with the shift away from the printing and personal computing businesses it pioneered.

Chief executive Meg Whitman will lead Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, a new company focusing on corporate hardware and services, while Dion Weisler, the vice president in charge of personal-computer and printer operations, will become CEO of that business, called HP Inc, Hewlett- Packard said in a statement.

Whitman is reversing an earlier position that the company should remain a single enterprise. When she took the helm in September 2011, as the fourth CEO in 2½ years, she ended plans by her predecessor to spin off the PC unit.