PALO ALTO, Calif. (AP) -- Hewlett-Packard Co. is re-branding Electronic Data Systems as HP Enterprise Services, roughly a year after buying the company in a blockbuster $13.9 billion deal.
The buyout of EDS, founded by former presidential candidate Ross Perot, more than doubled the size of HP's technology services business and made it the second-largest company in the market behind IBM Corp.
HP cast the renaming Wednesday as an important step in integrating the company, a process that has included nearly 25,000 layoffs.
It comes as rival Dell Inc. is set to make a similar push into technology services, buying Perot Systems Corp., another Ross Perot company, for $3.9 billion.
HP shares are down 5 cents to $46.96 in morning trading.