Lemur
09-29-2006, 15:50
First Dell bought Alienware (http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060322-6440.html). Now it seems that Hewlett Packard is jumping on the boutique gaming bus: HP Buys Voodoo (http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060928-7863.html). I wonder what advantage these corporate giants see in picking up small-scale gaming operations. What's next? Lenovo buys Falcon Northwest?
HP goes shopping, comes home with VoodooPC
9/28/2006 10:49:46 PM, by Eric Bangeman
HP will be buying VooDooPC for an undisclosed amount, the two companies announced today. The deal follows Dell's acquisition of Alienware earlier this year and will mark HP's first serious attempt to court gamers.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but VoodooPC CEO Ravi Sood and his brother Rahul will be joining a new gaming business unit within HP's Personal Systems Group. Rahul Sood describes the two companies as "complimentary opposites" and believes that VoodooPC's expertise with gaming and high-end PCs combined with HP's "innovations, scale, and leverage" will result in "some of the most compelling machines money can buy." (No word on whether HP was monitoring his phone lines and home network as he composed his blog post announcing the deal.)
VoodooPC has been known for its expensive, high-performance computers aimed primarily at the high-performance computing and gaming markets. Although its target audience is small, its margins are high, making the company an attractive acquisition target for another company.
Over the past year or so, HP has begun moving out of its core desktop/laptop/server/printer comfort zone with products like HDTVs and the HP Media Vault, a home NAS solution designed for storing high-definition video. The acquisition of VoodooPC gives the company access to a niche market previously unavailable to it, which fits in with HP's recent direction. It also fills a hole in HP's lineup, giving it a counterpart to Dell's Alienware brand. (Who's going to buy Falcon Northwest?)
Similar to Dell with Alienware, HP plans to keep the VoodooPC brand intact along with its distribution model. The deal is anticpated to close in November.
HP goes shopping, comes home with VoodooPC
9/28/2006 10:49:46 PM, by Eric Bangeman
HP will be buying VooDooPC for an undisclosed amount, the two companies announced today. The deal follows Dell's acquisition of Alienware earlier this year and will mark HP's first serious attempt to court gamers.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but VoodooPC CEO Ravi Sood and his brother Rahul will be joining a new gaming business unit within HP's Personal Systems Group. Rahul Sood describes the two companies as "complimentary opposites" and believes that VoodooPC's expertise with gaming and high-end PCs combined with HP's "innovations, scale, and leverage" will result in "some of the most compelling machines money can buy." (No word on whether HP was monitoring his phone lines and home network as he composed his blog post announcing the deal.)
VoodooPC has been known for its expensive, high-performance computers aimed primarily at the high-performance computing and gaming markets. Although its target audience is small, its margins are high, making the company an attractive acquisition target for another company.
Over the past year or so, HP has begun moving out of its core desktop/laptop/server/printer comfort zone with products like HDTVs and the HP Media Vault, a home NAS solution designed for storing high-definition video. The acquisition of VoodooPC gives the company access to a niche market previously unavailable to it, which fits in with HP's recent direction. It also fills a hole in HP's lineup, giving it a counterpart to Dell's Alienware brand. (Who's going to buy Falcon Northwest?)
Similar to Dell with Alienware, HP plans to keep the VoodooPC brand intact along with its distribution model. The deal is anticpated to close in November.