In some unexpected news today, HP and HyperX (formerly a division of Kingston) jointly released a statement that HP will acquire the HyperX gaming peripheral portfolio, and the brand, for $ 425 million. Kingston maintains DRAM, Flash and SSD products (those with the HyperX brand are likely to be renamed). Perhaps it is indicative that Kingston wants to remain focused on the memory and storage markets, and to divest itself of a variable commodities market, while HP is looking to increase its presence in space alongside its HP OMEN brand.
Pending the regulatory review, the deal is expected to close in the second quarter of 2021, with the addition of a non-GAAP acquisition for HP in the first full year. The HyperX line of peripherals, which includes gaming headsets, microphones, keyboards, mouse pads, mice, power supplies, console accessories and clothing, should be used by HP’s broader gaming ecosystem to expand potential add-ons for your games OMEN series desktops and laptops, as well as building that ecosystem for hardware, software and services.
HyperX, as a brand, has always been a distinctly somewhat separate element from Kingston – in recent years, at every fair we attended, we held separate meetings for each company, while a decade ago we would cover both in the same room. This breakdown of the business obviously allowed Kingston to package everything in case it needed to offload, as it did now with HP. Kingston still maintains the DRAM and SSD RGB gaming business, although they are likely to be sold by Kingston or a new separate brand, which we will learn about in due course. It is not clear whether HyperX sponsorships for eSports teams are also part of the agreement, whether they will be transferred to HP or whether they will remain with Kingston.
In the press release, HP cites that the PC hardware industry is expected to have an addressable market of $ 70 billion in 2023, with the global market for peripherals (games and non-games) growing to $ 12.4 billion in 2024. The HP says that gaming peripherals will be a disproportionately large element of this growth year after year, and that the HyperX brand recognition will help HP ‘advance its leadership in personal systems, modernizing computing experiences and expanding into valuable surroundings’. In a non-corporate speech, it just means that HP sees collective value in enabling its own systems with branded accessories to improve the overall experience. For a price, of course, although there will undoubtedly be some synergies, as HP may deactivate some of its own HP OMEN peripherals that may not be widely distributed.
With the deal expected to close in the second quarter, it will be interesting to see if HP does any brand reorganization with HyperX, such as ‘HyperX by HP’, or leaves it at that. If we have more information, we will add to this news.
Source: https://press.hp.com/us/en/press-releases/2021/hp-inc-to-acquire-hyperx.html