By Mark LandisTheresa Hickey, NBC NewsHP is reportedly interested in buying the printer drivers that power most printers, which would give the company access to a huge market in printers that can print large volumes of data.
That’s because it can’t buy the printers directly from the manufacturer.
Instead, it buys them through third-party distributors.
The printers would be sold in HP’s own stores.
This makes HP’s printer sales far more efficient and cheaper than buying them directly from companies, but it also makes it a potential headache for the company as it tries to find ways to cut costs.
HP has struggled with printer pricing in recent years, as it has struggled to make significant revenue off its inkjet printers, including the HP Inkjet Pro and the HP ColorJet printers.
In fact, HP has been selling inkjet Printers at a discount since early 2015.
But last year, it announced that it was discontinuing those printers in the U.S. because it was facing an inability to make sufficient profits from the inkjet business.
This year, HP also plans to cut its ink-jet sales by half, and it has cut back on its printer parts business as well.