HPE is sending a message of being a new company, smaller, nimbler, and better able to deal with the challenges of the fast-paced tech industry.
To complete this image, HPE is moving out its family home – the company’s Palo Alto headquarters.
The move, which will take place by the end of 2018, will see the Palo Alto building sold and employees being relocated to “newer, nearby sites” including San Jose, Milpitas, and the HPE Aruba offices in Santa Clara – which will also become the new global HQ.
Meg Whitman, CEO of HPE said: “Over the past two years we’ve made tremendous progress towards becoming a simpler, nimbler and more focused company.”
“I’m excited to move our headquarters to an innovative new building that provides a next-generation digital experience for our employees, customers and partners. Our new building will better reflect who HPE is today and where we are heading in the future.”
The move likely comes as part of the HPE Next Project, a three-year plan that aims to overhaul the company’s processes and investments. It is expected that around 5,000 employees, or one in ten, will lose their jobs and the company is also selling off numerous buildings.
The HPE Aruba HQ, which came as part of the Aruba acquisition back in 2015, and now it would seem that the parent is moving back in with the kids.
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The move may ease some of the angrier voices that have popped up during the Next Project, seeing as the company isn’t just getting rid of staff but is getting rid of property as well, but it does mark the end of an era.
The company was founded by Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard in a garage in Palo Alto, the area is the spiritual home of first HP and then Hewlett Packard Enterprise. The move away isn’t really the company rejecting its heritage, given that it will still support the Founder’s Office in Palo Alto, but just a sad tale of a business that is struggling to adjust to a new world.
