In a bid to offer an even larger portfolio of IT services for various industries, HP on Tuesday announced purchase of Electronic Data Systems Corp. (EDS) for the price of $13.9 billion, or $25 a share. The acquisition will boost HP services revenue, the company hopes.

“The combination of HP and EDS will create a leading force in global IT services. Together, we will be a stronger business partner, delivering customers the broadest, most competitive portfolio of products and services in the industry. This reinforces our commitment to help customers manage and transform their technology to achieve better results,” said Mark Hurd, the head of HP.

HP intends to establish a new business group, to be branded EDS – an HP company, which will be headquartered at EDS’s existing executive offices in Plano, Texas. HP plans that EDS will continue to be led after the deal closes by EDS chairman, president and chief executive officer Ronald A. Rittenmeyer, who will join HP’s executive council and report to Mark Hurd, HP’s chairman and chief executive officer.

The transaction is expected to close in the second half of calendar year 2008 and to more than double HP’s services revenue, which amounted to $16.6 billion in fiscal 2007. The companies’ collective services businesses, as of the end of each company's 2007 fiscal year, had annual revenues of more than $38 billion and 210,000 employees, doing business in more than 80 countries.

HP anticipates that the transaction will be accretive to fiscal 2009 non-GAAP earnings and accretive to 2010 GAAP earnings. Significant synergies are expected as a result of the combination.

Acquiring EDS advances HP’s stated objective of strengthening its services business. The specific service offerings delivered by the combined companies are: IT outsourcing, including data center services, workplace services, networking services and managed security; business process outsourcing, including health claims, financial processing, CRM and HR outsourcing; applications, including development, modernization and management; consulting and integration; and technology services. The combination will provide extensive experience in offering solutions to customers in the areas of government, healthcare, manufacturing, financial services, energy, transportation, communications, and consumer industries and retail.

“First and foremost, this is a great transaction for our stockholders, providing tremendous value in the form of a significant premium to our stock price. It’s also beneficial to our customers, as the combination of our two global companies and the collective skills of our employees will drive innovation and enhance value for them in a wide range of industries. In addition, our Agility Alliance will be significantly strengthened,” Mr. Rittenmeyer said.