Indigo founder Benny Landa rocked visitors, and his own employees, on the first day of Print 01 (Chicago 6-13 September) by announcing that he had just signed a deal to sell his company to Hewlett-Packard.

He claimed he had signed the document about 48 minutes before taking the stage to address the press and Indigo and HP employees. Its been a well-kept secret, he said.

Landa, who described the union as one big love-in, stressed that this did not mean that Indigo would be absorbed into HP. The Indigo Division would continue to operate from Israel and its name, culture and values would live on, he said.

Landa too would remain with the company but will no longer be known as chairman and chief executive officer. I will become the grand galactic commander, which is a title I have always wanted, he joked. He will in fact become a strategic adviser to HP chairman and chief executive officer Carly Fiorina.

Im going to be more in your face than ever. You arent going to feel a thing, he added.
HP and Indigo have been working closely for a while. They formed a technology partnership three years ago and last year entered into a major strategic alliance which saw HP take a 13.4% share in Indigo and begin to OEM its digital print engines. All products from the newly allied camp will eventually have both HP and Indigo branding.
Under the terms of the agreement, HP will acquire the remaining Indigo shares for approximately $629m in HP common stock and a future cash payment of up to $253m dependent on Indigos performance. Were not going to come to this in an arrogant way, said HP vice president of commercial printing solutions Bill McGlynn. We come in a humble way to learn. This is a ten-year, two-decade journey for us.

Its been a busy week for HP which earlier announced its intended merger
with computing giant Compaq.

Story by Lauretta Roberts, at Print 01 in Chicago