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Hewlett-Packard approached LG, Samsung and others about the sale of its PC business last year, a source told CNET.

The PC maker sounded out the Korean electronics giants late last year long before its announcement last month, according to a source familiar with the overtures by HP. Last month, HP announced its intention to "evaluate strategic alternatives" for its PC business when it released earnings.

The source said HP approached Korean electronics conglomerates as part of a strategy--at that time--to try to sell the business to large companies that had much broader interests than just PCs. PCs would, … Read more

Hewlett-Packard will break up its WebOS business, sending the software component to a different part of the company, according to a report Saturday at PreCentral.net.

The company that was formerly Palm will split, reporting to separate divisions of HP, according to the report. This comes after HP announced during its August 18 earnings call that it was shuttering its WebOS hardware business, which includes its TouchPad tablet and Palm Pre phone.

WebOS, which HP has not terminated, will be pushed over to HP's Office of Strategy and Technology (OS&T) and report to Executive Vice President Shane Robinson, … Read more

The head of Hewlett-Packard's Personal Systems Group believes that his division will lead the PC market even after it might be spun off from its parent company.

Speaking to Reuters in an interview published today, PSG chief Todd Bradley told the news outlet that he expects his division to continue to reign supreme in the PC business in the coming months and years, adding that the firm will also be "one of, if not the largest customers of all of our major suppliers, be it Samsung to LG to Microsoft to Intel."

HP earlier this month made the surprising announcement … Read more

Lighting Science Group and Dixon Technologies India today touted an LED light bulb equivalent to a 60-watt incandescent that they say will hit store shelves with a price below $15.

The omnidirectional LED bulb, in the traditional A19 shape of household incandescent light bulbs, will become available in India by the end of the year and worldwide, including in the U.S., early in 2012, the companies said. It's the first in an expected series of products, including streetlights and industrial fixtures, that Lighting Science and Dixon plan to jointly manufacture and distribute.

Prices for LED bulbs meant to … Read more

Apple's latest chip technology won't appear in the next-generation iPad until June 2012 at the earliest, according to a firm that tracks the mobile processor industry.

Getting new processor technology out the door (remember, Apple is also in the chip design business) is a Herculean task for even seasoned chip manufacturers like Intel. It will certainly be no different for Apple, whose next chip, dubbed the "A6," may not make an appearance in the iPad 3 until later in 2012, said The Linley Group, a chip consulting firm.

If Apple keeps to its schedule and launches … Read more

The Chrysler Group today announced it plans to invest $72 million in its Toledo Machining plant in Perrysburg, Ohio, to install new equipment and special tooling for the production of front-wheel- and rear-wheel-drive torque converters and steering columns. The investment will also go toward retaining 640 hourly and salaried jobs.

Toledo Machining currently produces steering columns for eight North American assembly plants. The plant also produces torque converters, a component that allows the transmission to shift gears in an automatic transmission, for plants five around the globe.

Work on the 1.2 million square-foot, 45-year-old plant is expected to begin … Read more

HP has a winner on its hands, now that it's killed off that particular winner. The Internetorati clamor to buy discounted TouchPads, while HP's stock plummets 20 percent to a six-year low. So, Apotheker, who's right? You or the geeks? Also, Facebook finds out once again that censorship is hard, and the real reason aliens want to kill us: we'll ruin the entire galaxy if we get off this rock!

Google rolls out verified profiles for Google+, Skype buys GroupMe messaging service, and HP liquidates its stock of tablets.

Links from Monday's episode of Loaded:

Ultrabooks are coming. The first wave of superslim laptops are expected to hit in force by the holiday season. Earlier this week, I spoke with Greg Welch, director of Intel's Ultrabook group, to get a better idea of what an Ultrabook is.

Though Intel won't make Ultrabooks, it will supply the core components, so it is intimately involved in the platform. And, as Welch, describes it, the Ultrabook is "an initiative to advance the state of the art of the notebook experience across several years."

Question: Can you talk about some of the new technologies Intel … Read more