About

The last few years have seen big changes at information technology company HP (formerly known as Hewlett Packard). The company recently went through a split into two companies: Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) covers the servers, Cloud and services business; and HP Inc., runs the computers and printers business. Miral Hamani-Samaan, director of the corporate, ventures and M&A, international operations for HPE Switzerland, says that as much as the spin-off of was a fantastic opportunity for them as corporate lawyers: ‘it was challenging as we were splitting teams and colleagues with whom we worked for many years. In that sense, I had to make sure that while the corporate transaction was occurring, the spirit and the cohesion of the team would remain as strong as it had always been’. The team has managed to keep a high spirit while managing business as usual activities which include advising the corporate development and business teams in conducting M&A and handling the tax team and integration office on a week by week basis. They team had an integral role in the execution of the roughly 100 local transactions that were aimed at separating the HPE and HP businesses at a country level. To manage the high volume of corporate and commercial work generated by an acquisitive company, the team has developed an M&A knowledge management tool that is a web solution designed as a project management tool in increase efficiency and better monitor risk. Legal industry press has praised this tool across Europe, and they were invited to present at conferences such as the Swedish VQ Knowledge and Strategy Forum in 2015 to explain the benefits.