HP Says EDS Merger To Close This Month

Executives of Hewlett Packard (HPQ) expect their $13.9 billion acquisition of IT services firm EDS (EDS), announced in May, to close this month, the executives told analysts on a conference call this evening following their Q3 financial report.

“We anticipate that the acquisition of EDS will close later this month,” said Jim Burns, HP’s VP for investor relations. HP management will meet with analysts on September 15, including CEO Mark Hurd and executives from EDS and HP’s own services group. They plan to discuss “HP’s opportunities in the enterprise market including actions we will take and the expected financial impact to HP of the EDS acquisition in Q4 and upcoming periods,” said Burns.

Also on the call, Hurd had the following to say:

The [planning] is going well and we are confident in the benefits of this business combination will bring to customers, partners and to shareholders. We have over 500 HP and EDS people dedicated full-time to the integration team. The feedback from the vast majority of the customers that I talk to continues to be extremely positive as they contemplate the power of HP’s innovation coupled with EDS’s scaled service business.