The right way to think about HP is as a conglomerate : a company of companies. Looks like they are trying to create separate focussed companies out of it. This

The right way to think about HP is as a conglomerate : a company of companies. Looks like they are trying to create separate focussed companies out of it. This enables different companies to succeed or fail on their own merit. For example, the software company does not have to eat up the losses from the hardware company and vice-versa. This also enables the companies to partner with outsiders. For example, if HPE servers are terrible, the software company can now buy better servers from Dell or Lenovo. This would be hard to do before, as questions would be raised if a product company was unwilling to use it's own products. It can also integrate with products from other companies eliminating the so-called 'strategy tax'. Disclaimer : I used to work at HP/HPE, but this is pure speculation.