HP Ends Printer Reselling Agreement With Dell

Chris Morgan, vice president of sales and marketing for HP's imaging and printing division, said the company viewed Dell as a channel but that Dell as a printer vendor changed the business relationship. "Now is the time to sever the relationship," he said. "It hinges on the difference between a branded focus and a broad-based customer choice focus."

Morgan said that the HP printer volume sold by Dell amounted to about two days of HP's annual printer run rate. Morgan pointed out that a "significant" amount of the HP printer volume sold by Dell was procured from HP's channel partners and that Dell could conceivably continue to procure HP printers from the channel for resale.

The channel has questioned the reseller arrangement with Dell for years, charging that HP was aiding and abetting HP's and the channel's biggest competitor in the PC market. But Morgan said the deal was struck for "market coverage" purposes.