The announcement from HP that it will split into two different companies is not unexpected, given the public discussion and rumors about spinning off or selling the personal systems and printing business, including the recent failed merger with EMC.  IBM undertook a similar activity, ending up with Ricoh and Lenovo acquiring those assets. It took a very long time for IBM to finally offload its Printing Systems business.  I was hearing that the business was up for sale as far back as the late 1980s.

HP does not report its Graphic Arts Business revenues separately, but it has to be a relatively small part of the $57 billion in HP Inc. revenues. However, the company's 2013 annual report infers that at least the graphic services part of the business is profitable and growing, leaving the rest to our imagination:  "The decline in commercial hardware net revenue was partially offset by net revenue growth in the graphics services and managed print services businesses."

Once the new companies are formed, it will be interesting to see at what level of granularity results are reported and if there will be further movement to break HP Inc. into still smaller separate businesses.  It seems to me that the graphic arts business is in a better position to stand successfully on its own that other parts of the new HP Inc. business, which might be a reason not to separate it out. However, it might be in the best interests of the Graphic Arts Business to do so.  Time will tell.

We'll be digging to see what other information we can uncover ... although it is likely it will be difficult to get much more detail on the record than is provided in the HP release, FAQ and Fact Sheet.