In announcing the possibility of selling off the PC division, then-CEO Leo Apotheker was considering narrowing HP's focus, IBM-like, on core data center technologies and other enterprise services. PCs are low margin and HP's tablet, the TouchPad, against Apple's iPad.

Analysts were, in many ways, mystified by the decision to get rid of the Personal Systems Group. Investors were simple displeased. So, apparently was HP's board, which dumped Apotheker.

Charles King, an analyst at Pund-IT, pointed to the recent Netflix debacle as a point of comparison. The video company saw a drop in customers and stock value after it raised prices. And its short-lived and unpopular decision to create a separate DVD business called Qwikster did not help it.

"I think we're entering a period of time where enterprises are becoming much more sensitive to opinions expressed by shareholders and their customers than they may have been in the past," said King.

There were concerns among analysts that without its PC division, HP would lose sales with businesses and pay higher prices for components if it lost its ability to buy parts, like disk drives and processors, at great scale.