HP to keep PC division

Meg Whitman promised to make a decision about selling or spinning off HP’s PC division by the end of the month (and HP’s own fiscal fourth quarter), and she’s beat her own deadline: the company just announced that it will keep the Personal Systems Group after all. After conducting a strategic review and concluding that the costs to recreate PSG in a standalone company would outweigh the benefits, Whitman says “HP is committed to PSG, and together we are stronger.” Funny how keeping the world’s biggest PC manufacturer in-house works like that.

Of course, the move leaves open a lot of questions—most notably, what will happen to the webOS group after a month of turmoil that’s seen the entire hardware program closed down, and whether or not PSG head Todd Bradley will stay on after having the CEO position at a new company essentially taken away from him. We’re hoping to get many more of these answers at 5PM when Meg holds a conference call about the decision; we’ll keep you updated.