Thursday, September 28, 2006

Power to the Masses: HP Buys Voodoo


Hewlett-Packard announced Wednesday that it had reached an agreement to purchase Voodoo Computers Ltd., a privately held company which unashamedly promotes itself as the manufacturer of "the fastest desktop on Earth."

Voodoo, which specializes in high-powered PCs for serious gamers, was founded in 1991 by Rahul Sood, who co-owns the company with his brother, Ravi Sood. HP will establish a new gaming division and will name Rahul Sood, president and chief technology officer at Voodoo, as CTO of the new unit while Ravi Sood, Voodoo's CEO, will serve as the unit's director of strategy.

HP's announcement came at the end of a midtown Manhattan press event which showcased HP's s new consumer desktop and portable computing products and well as future concepts, including a flexible computer display that could be rolled up.

"HP understands our brand. They understand our strategy," said Rahul Sood to dozens of reporters, analysts and HP customers. "HP knows that we want to innovate out of the box."

He noted in his company's blog that HP had a $3.5 billion research and development budget and said that HP's labs were generating almost a dozen patents a day. During Wednesday's presentation he noted that he had received a good deal of moral support from Mark Cuban, best known as the mercurial billionaire owner of the National Basketball Association's Dallas Mavericks. When asked, Cuban, who was in attendance, said he wasn't an investor in Voodoo, just a close friend of the owners.

"Our vision has always been to redefine the machine," said Ravi Sood. Voodoo Computers is based Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Rahul Sood's Weblog

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