With HP and EDS looking at a $13.9 billion merger, there’s a lot of speculation as to whether or not these two behemoths can successfully integrate their businesses. Ben Worthen wrote on the Wall Street Journal blogs about the three reasons that the deal might fail. It’s true that HP’s core business has historically been hardware and EDS has been a software-independent consulting firm, however this isn’t necessarily a bad omen for the deal.

In fact, while this is quite a massive deal in terms of market cap, it’s not really a daring move in the least. Six years ago in October, IBM announced a deal to buy the consulting arm of PriceWaterhouseCoopers for $3.5 billion. IBM’s Global Services arm brought a resurgence of growth to HP’s similarly pedigreed competitor, ending years of stagnant growth and a fierce battle for hardware budget dollars.

This deal seems like an aggressive move to counter IBM’s strategic shift into the services sector. Hopefully the EDS corporate culture will be mature enough to remain focused while the companies integrate their business operation. The only potential downside in EDS that I see will be the potential fallout in the US government contracting market that may come in the next Presidential administration. Overall it seems like a well-played move, if a little behind the power curve.

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