HP Enterprise (HPE) is in talks to sell its software unit to buyout firm Thoma Bravo, Reuters reports, a deal the company hopes is worth anything from $8 to $10 billion.

According to the usual "people familiar with the matter" HPE boss Meg Whitman wants to restructure the company to focus on networking, storage, datacentres and other rrelated services. Software fails to slot neatly in either unit and as such it means it has to go, preferably to a buyer with at least some experience in running software companies.

Thoma Bravo actually fits the bill, since it already owns Dynatrace and Compuware. It apparently wants to combine these companies with HPE assets in order to produce cost savings and efficiencies. News of HPE wanting to sell at least "some" software assets emerged back in July 2016, with a Bloomberg report claiming the sales process was still in the "preliminary stages."

The HPE software portfolio includes Vertica, Arcsight and Autonomy. It is perhaps telling the rumoured asking price for all these companies combined does not reach the $10.2bn HP paid for Autonomy alone back in 2011, a deal mired in controversy since it was completed 5 years ago. After all the cloud is currently king, and HP software revenues total $3.6bn in 2015, down from $3.9bn in the previous year.

Go HPE in Talks to Sell Software Unit to Thoma Bravo (Reuters)