Also, while both companies' services divisions can help drum up hardware business, HP has only 65,000 employees in services to IBM's 180,000. IBM bolstered that by buying PricewaterhouseCoopers' consulting arm last year for $3.9 billion--a deal HP explored in 2000 at about $17 billion.
"From HP's standpoint, the services side is where they still have a way to go versus IBM," said Meta Group analyst Rob Schafer.
Even so, HP and IBM had better get used to each other. There's only so much business to go around.
In April, Procter & Gamble Co. hired HP to take over its internal tech operations, a 10-year deal worth $3 billion. Five months later, P&G announced a 10-year, $400 million pact to turn over management of its human-resources department to IBM.
Each contract required HP and IBM to take hundreds of P&G employees on as their own, which means "both IBM and HP will be working collaboratively in several areas," P&G spokesman Damon Jones said.
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