Voodoo to boost HP's entry into the gaming market

Hewlett Packard, the world’s largest information technology corporation, has acquired the privately-held personal computer manufacturer Voodoo PC for an unrevealed sum.

HP is expected to set up a separate unit in the personal system group in November, which will focus on the gaming industry. Phil McKinney of HP will become the general manager, whereas, Rahul and Ravi Sood, co-owner’s of Voodoo PC will become chief technologist and director of strategy of the unit respectively.

Hewlett-Packard, headquartered in Palo Alto, California, United States, has a global presence in the fields of computing, printing, and digital imaging, and also provides software and services.

Founded in 1939, HP has a successful line of printers, scanners, digital cameras, calculators, PDAs, servers, workstations, and home-small business computers. HP today promotes itself as not just being a hardware and software company, but also one that offers a full range of services to architect, implement and support today's IT infrastructure.

Executive vice president of HP's personal systems group, Todd Bradley, said that the company is already on the first spot in two of the three key sections of the gaming industry. It dominates the market because it furnishes the need of game development by providing leading workstation solutions and also powers the largest online game services.

Bradley said that by acquisition of Voodoo PC, HP will branch itself in the gaming market and also make it’s presence felt. “Together with Voodoo PC's leadership and influence, H-P will have the expertise to become the leader in the gaming customer segment," he said.

Voodoo PC, specializing in high-end gaming, media center, home office or digital creation desktop computers as well as laptop computers, was founded in 1991 by Rahul Sood, and in 1999, brother Ravi Sood stepped into the board of operations.

On September 28, 2006, Rahul Sood announced that Voodoo PC will be acquired by HP.

Renowned as a leader in opulence PC market, Voodoo PC stands throat and neck with rivals like Apple Computer, Alienware, Falcon Northwest, Dell's XPS and other companies with products focused on lofty performance and efficient computing.

Besides Voodoo PC, HP has also acquired Data Systems Inc. in 1966, which marked HP’s entry into the growing computer market. In 1989, HP acquired Apollo computer for $476 million, achieving a growth in market share after the merger.

Hewlett-Packard also merged with Compaq, Application IQ and Mercury Interactive in 2002, 2005 and 2006 respectively.

In the past few weeks HP had been in steady inspection over the way in which it investigated a series of leaks to the media. The announcement of the acquisition came as a piece of optimistic news.

The United States House of Representatives committee on energy and commerce had kept a constant eye on the PC giant, which was accused of using illegal methods to find the leak. It was alleged that the company went upto an extend of tapping phone calls.

Rahul Sood is much impressed with HP’s innovative record and this is the main reason he shunned the merger offer with Dell.