H-P to Acquire Scitex

Hewlett-Packard(HPQ) late Thursday shelled out $230 million in cash to buy Scitex Vision, an Israel-based, superwide format, digital printing company -- Mark Hurd's first acquisition as H-P CEO.

Scitex specializes in wide and superwide printers used for signage and industrial applications such as billboards, banners, ads that wrap around city buses and street advertising. It has 560 employees and generated $142 million in revenue for the 12-month period, ended June 30.

The purchase will bolster H-P's own large-format printing business, which accounted for $1.2 billion in sales last year and has 550 staffers. H-P spokesman Ryan Donovan said the company has no plans to eliminate any Scitex workers.

This purchase is the first for Mark Hurd since joining H-P at the end of March. His previous changes to the company have involved massive job cuts and a reversal of an earlier realignment.

The company is not holding a conference call to discuss the purchase, but investors might hear more about it during next week's scheduled fiscal third-quarter financial report.

Shares of H-P closed the regular session up 4 cents to $24.18. After hours they recently slid 58 cents to $23.60.

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