Meg Whitman, the new CEO of Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ), wants to rely on new software revenue to reverse the firm’s fortunes, according to Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung,
The paper reports that Whitman said “I want to double or triple our current revenue in software from the current level of $5 billion.” HP has annual revenue of about $100 billion.
Whitman may see the software increase as her only chance to revive the firm. Its PC and printer businesses are under seige by tablet PCs and smartphones from rivals like Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL). Its consulting services business face sharp pressure from other large tech firms like IBM (NYSE: IBM) and SAP (NYSE: SAP).
HP will have a large challenge in increasing its software sales. Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) have strong positions in the enterprise software sector. HP will have to challenge them in key sectors like virtualization.