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Hewlett-Packard, one of the world's largest technology companies, finds itself the underdog as it ditches most of its consumer businesses to become more like the well-oiled, corporate-focused machines of rivals IBM and Oracle.

HP will no longer make smartphones and tablet computers and wants to leave the PC business after spending a decade assembling itself into a technology conglomerate by buying such companies as computer maker Compaq Computer for $19 billion in 2002 and smartphone pioneer Palm for $1.8 billion last year.

HP is shutting down its mobile hardware business and will stop making the TouchPad tablet and smartphones as the company looks to sharpen its focus on cloud, solutions and software for enterprise, commercial and government markets.

HP said it will discontinue operations for webOS devices during the fourth quarter of this year because the devices have not met internal milestones and financial targets. The news means the end of the line for mobile devices under the Palm brand, which HP acquired last year.