First, HP doesn't want to be like IBM and focus on data center hardware, and high margin services and software.

Second, HP doesn't want to be tone deaf like and make a decision that could cost it customers and good will.

Third, HP wants to move on. This is a company that wants to put the turbulence of yet-another-CEO ouster behind it and let Whitman, one month on the job, without major distractions.

But the company that Whitman is now overseeing, which earned $126 billion in revenue last year, is becoming increasingly monolithic. The Personal Systems Group, which sells PCs and tablets and other devices, accounted for more than $40 billion of that revenue.

This is a company that touches almost every aspect of IT operations, and it's getting bigger as it moves deeper into software and makes big purchases to support its strategy, such as its decision in August to buy enterprise software maker Autonomy for $10.3 billion. That deal .