Hewlett-Packard Looks to the Cloud with its M&A Ambition

Hewlett-Packard is officially back from its disastrous $8.8 billion 2012 write-down affiliated with its acquisition of Autonomy. The company's Eucalyptus deal in September signified that fear is no longer governing executives there, and that H-P might as well read M&A, soon. Other players are increasingly trying to push cloud-based offerings, and taking out a former affiliate of Amazon will only help H-P keep new entrants into the business at bay. Shares are priced at an earnings multiple discount that makes H-P a cheap bargain compared to some of its competitors -- but will that quiet activists?