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HP waves goodbye to its software side in $8.8 billion deal

Why does a little-known British company think its worth that much?

Meg Whitman, CEO of Hewlitt Packard Enterprise, rings the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange in 2015. HPE will sell the software portion of its business to Micro Focus in a deal worth $8.8 billion.
Meg Whitman, CEO of Hewlitt Packard Enterprise, rings the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange in 2015. HPE will sell the software portion of its business to Micro Focus in a deal worth $8.8 billion.
Andrew Burton/Getty Images

Hewlett-Packard will sell the software portion of its business to a small British firm called Micro Focus in a deal worth $8.8 billion.

From his side of the Atlantic, Tony Bonsignore, business reporter with the BBC, said the deal has brought some cheer to people in the United Kingdom.

“It doesn’t often happen that a British company snaps up a U.S. company of this kind of iconic nature. All the direction has been in the other way the last few years, so we have to enjoy it while we can.”

The deal could mean huge profits for Micro Focus. And some will point to the deal as an example of how the U.K.’s vote on Brexit might not be as disastrous for the economy as originally thought.

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