Big Blue to Meet Its Match in HP-EDS

SAN FRANCISCO -- The repercussions from the merger of Electronic Data Systems(EDS Quote) with Hewlett-Packard(HPQ Quote) will ripple broadly throughout the tech industry.

H-P announced Tuesday that it will buy the outsourcing services company for $13.9 billion.

The deal will be bad "for anyone that doesn't have H-P or IBM(IBM Quote) on their business card," said IDC analyst Bob Welch.

Even IBM, the leader in the global services and outsourcing business, will ultimately feel the pressure. Gartner puts the worldwide market for IT services in 2007 at $748 billion. With $54 billion in services revenue, IBM had 7.2% of the market. At $22 billion, EDS had 3%, while H-P had 2.3%. ...