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Kingston Technology sells HyperX gaming division to HP

by Mark Tyson on 25 February 2021, 11:11

Tags: HP (NYSE:HPQ), Kingston, HyperX

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Kingston Technology has written to HEXUS with confirmation that it has some to a definitive agreement that HP will acquire its HyperX gaming division branded product portfolio. HP has agreed to pay US$425 million for the gaming peripherals line which covers headsets, keyboards, mice, mouse pads, USB microphones, and console accessories. Importantly, the agreement doesn’t cover DRAM and Flash memory products, Kingston's core business in and outside of gaming. The official release says that "Kingston will retain the DRAM, flash, and SSD products for gamers and enthusiasts," but I would think that they will have to go forward in a re-branded state.

A contemporary HyperX gaming setup

As is usually the case when these deals are done, CEOs from both parties issued statements about how good the deal will be for both companies, customers, and creating corporate synergies. What is certain is that HP wants to drive growth in its personal systems business where gaming is a very attractive niche. HP's President and CEO, Enrique Lores, describes this as "expanding into valuable adjacencies". With HyperX under his wing Lores believes that the expanded HP portfolio will be a worthwhile driver towards this goal.

A contemporary HP Omen PC gaming setup

Of course those interested in PC gaming and peripherals will be aware that HP currently appeals to the gaming market via its Omen brand, and somewhat less directly via the Pavilion brand. If you check out HP's product pages you can see that HP already has a number of Omen branded laptops, desktops, monitors, and accessories. I was less aware of the range of accessories available, but it seems quite extensive, particularly in the number of mice available. It would be natural to merge its most successful accessories into HyperX branded lines going forward. I will be interested to see if the Omen laptops and desktops become HyperX branded products in the future or the existing HP gaming brand will persist in this area.

The transaction is expected to close in calendar Q2 2021, pending regulatory review and other customary closing conditions.



HEXUS Forums :: 6 Comments

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Time to change of brand I think… I don't know… been using Kingston for +20 years
Recently purchased a Hyper-X mouse after years and years (a decade?) of using a Roccat Kone.

Bad move. Beta SW only available via the Microsoft store and several buttons have no default assignment so you need to use the SW, which is also a tad unpredictable and non-intuitive.
But the reviews said it was good for RTS games, damnit ☹️

I do have a Hyper-X chair (same construction as Secret Labs for less than half the price, not the same level of quality) which has been great so far and probably impacted my decision to get the crappy mouse.
The silver lining being that the DRAM and flash memory products are untouched. Curious to see what happens to the HyperX brand under HP, whether it flourishes or diminishes the brand recognition.
To be honest, I always assumed HyperX peripherals were simply rebranded things, so I would assume that this just allows Kingston to re-focus on their core offerings.

If they weren't simply rebranded things though, then it wouldn't surprise me if the HyperX brand gets reduced to that to maximise profits for HP's shareholders.

I always saw HP as a bit of a boring, business-focused company, and their attempts at grabbing a space of the gaming pie to likely be doomed to fail and result in just coming across as desperately trying to look “cool”.

TL;DR:
Kingston: Alright, you can have that, I'm going back to do what I do best.
HP: How do you do, fellow kids?
Only thing I refer to Kingston as is RAM, not interested in any of the other crap, HyperX series RAM has been what I bought forever, now I need to change brand, because I don't trust HP for consumer products.