HP Enterprise Services LLC (formerly Electronic Data Systems Corporation, then Electronic Data Systems LLC) was an American multinational information technology equipment and services company headquartered in Plano, Texas.
Founded in 1962 by Ross Perot, EDS was a subsidiary of GM from 1984 until it was spun-off in 1996. The company was acquired by HP in 2008 and rebranded as HPES in 2009.
In 2017 the company merged with CSC into DXC Technology.
History
Electronic Data Systems (EDS) was founded in 1962 by H. Ross Perot, a graduate of the United States Naval Academy and a successful IBM salesman who made first-hand observations of how inefficiently IBM's customers typically were using their expensive systems. Somewhat to IBM's chagrin, since the company wanted to sell as many computers as possible, Perot made a fortune changing this. An early success was in matching the unused computer time at Southwestern Life Insurance Company with the computing needs of rapidly expanding Collins Radio, both located in Dallas, Texas. Perot knew the inside details of both companies.
In its early years, EDS was a pioneer in facilities management – becoming the IT department for many companies – as well as beginning to service banks and provide early support for both Medicaid and Medicare in its home state of Texas. Leading the effort internally was Morton H. Meyerson, who joined the company in 1966 as the company's 54th employee. In 1967, he proposed the business model that eventually became known as "outsourcing" and which led to exponential growth for EDS.
In the 1970s, EDS expanded initially into more insurance services and later credit unions, and by 1975 revenue topped $100 million (~$ in ) and the company began bidding for work internationally. In 1978, EDS expanded into financial markets with the arrival of automated teller machines, electronic funds transfer and real-time point-of-sale terminals. Meyerson was named president in 1979, at which point EDS had revenue of $270 million (~$ in ), was free of debt, and had 8,000 employees.
In the 1980s, they expanded into travel services supporting payment services between travel agents and airlines represented by the Air Transport Association of America, and provided large-scale contracts for the US military.
In January 1981, EDS purchased Centurion Computer Corporation, founded as Warrex Computer Corporation in 1972,Centurion DataPro Reports, archived by Internet Archive a manufacturer of small business minicomputers.
General Motors acquisition In 1984, the company was acquired by General Motors (GM) for $2.6 billion (~$ in ), with EDS becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of GM. Meyerson remained president, and in 1985, the company had a presence in 21 countries with 40,000 employees. Meyerson retired in 1987. During his years of executive leadership, EDS revenue grew to $4 billion a year, and the company grew to 45,000 employees. By the end of the decade, revenue was $5 billion.
In 1985, Electronic Data Systems (EDS) began moving into its new headquarters in the Legacy development in Plano, Texas, with the campus opening in stages and the main move completed by 1993, establishing a major corporate presence that spurred significant development in the area.
The relocation of Electronic Data Systems from its Forest Lane location to the Legacy development in Plano in the year 1985 was initially driven by the company's growth in the late 1970s.
Regained independence In 1996, GM spun off EDS as an independent company.
In the 1990s, in addition to its existing markets, EDS was entering the telecommunications industry and was providing IT systems in many foreign countries. They were providing information systems for global sporting events including the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, the 1994 FIFA World Cup, and the 1998 FIFA World Cup. In 1994, they signed what was at the time the largest information technology contract with Xerox for $3.2 billion (~$ in ) and also bought the New Zealand banking processing company Databank Systems. In 1995 they purchased A.T. Kearney, the world's 4th largest private management consulting firm. In 1996, they became an independent company again and relisted on the New York Stock Exchange. Before the turn of the century they took part in over 1,300 Year 2000 projects. As a part of the move towards being an independent company, EDS asked its employees to assist in the re-branding effort by submitting designs for a new logo. While a design (a square with the "E" in it) was selected and used for several years, it was the design of Shawn Downs, an employee in the Charlotte IPC, that was ultimately selected and utilised in the 2000 launch.
In 2000, EDS launched a new logo with an award-winning Super Bowl commercial about herding cats. Post-2000, they continued to sign long term, billion dollar contracts with organizations such as Bank of America, American Airlines, General Motors, Kraft Foods and the United States Navy. In 2006, they sold A.T. Kearney in a management buyout.
HP acquisition In May 2008, Hewlett-Packard (HP) confirmed that it had reached a deal with EDS to acquire the company for $13.9 billion (~$ in ). The deal was completed on August 26, 2008 and EDS became an HP business unit. Ronald A. Rittenmeyer, EDS Chairman, President, and CEO, remained at the helm and reported to HP CEO Mark Hurd until his retirement. In December 2008, HP announced that Rittenmeyer would retire at the end of the month.
As of 2008, EDS employed 300,000 people in 64 countries, the largest locations being the United States, India and the UK. It was ranked as one of the largest service companies on the Fortune 500 list with around 2,000 clients.
In September 2009, EDS began going to market as HP Enterprise Services (HPES), a name change which came one year after HP announced the acquisition of EDS, and which was a critical milestone as the integration of EDS into HP neared completion.
In 2015, after the Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) spun off from HP, HP Enterprise Services rebranded as Hewlett Packard Enterprise Services (HPES).
Merger with CSC into DXC On April 3, 2017, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Services merged with Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) to form DXC Technology, retaining significant operations from Plano, Texas, and many aspects of EDS. On June 1, 2018, DXC spun off the U.S. public services sector of the business through a Reverse Morris Trust, combining with Vencore and KeyPoint Government Solutions to create a new independent and publicly traded government contractor, Perspecta Inc.
The main building of the former headquarters were demolished by controlled implosion on August 9, 2026.
Company structure
In 2006, EDS sold their management consulting subsidiary company, A.T. Kearney, in a management buyout and retained interests in five related companies:
ExcellerateHRO, which offers human resources outsourcing services jointly owned by Towers Perrin Injazat Data Systems, which was a joint venture between EDS and Mubadala Development Company of Abu Dhabi. Its purpose is to provide IT and business process outsourcing (BPO) services in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Oman to the government, oil and gas, utilities, financial services, transportation, telecom and healthcare sectors SOLCORP, which provided software and consulting services for the life insurance and wealth management industry EDS Consumer Loan Services (Wendover), which supports consumer loans in the United States MphasiS, operating from Bangalore, India, is an applications development and business processing and infrastructure outsourcing company. MphasiS was merged with then EDS India Unit to become MphasiS, an HP Company with about 33,000 employees. MphasiS operated as an independent subsidiary with its own board and was listed on Indian markets as MphasiS Limited.
Acquisitions In June 2006, EDS acquired a majority holding in MphasiS, a leading applications and business process outsourcing (BPO) services company based in Bangalore, India.
In March 2007, EDS acquired RelQ Ltd, a testing company based in Bangalore, India.
In November 2007, EDS announced that it had agreed to purchase an approximate 93 percent equity interest in Saber Corporation, a leading provider of software and services to U.S. state governments, from various sellers, including majority shareholder Accel-KKR, for approximately $420 million (~$ in ) in cash. Saber became Saber Government Solutions after merging with other EDS state and local non-healthcare groups. In January 2009, it rebranded as EDS, an HP company.
In April 2008, EDS acquired Vistorm Holdings Limited, a provider of information assurance and managed security services based in the U.K. The acquisition will create one of the largest information assurance and managed security services firms in Europe.
In May 2008, HP and EDS announced that they had signed a definitive agreement under which HP would purchase EDS at a price of $25.00 per share, or an enterprise value of approximately $13.9 billion. The terms of the transaction were unanimously approved by the HP and EDS boards of directors. The transaction closed on 26 August 2008. The companies' collective services businesses, as of the end of each company's 2007 fiscal year, had annual revenues of more than $38 billion (~$ in ) and 210,000 employees, doing business in more than 80 countries.
In September 2009, HP purchased Lecroix Systems and incorporated it into the infrastructure of EDS to facilitate both in-house and client network security needs.
Revenue sources For 2006, $9.6 billion of revenue came from the Americas (Canada, Latin America, and the United States); $6.4 billion from Europe, Middle East, and Africa; $1.5 billion from Asia-Pacific; Services' revenue was: Infrastructure $12 billion, Applications Software $5.9 billion, Business Process Outsourcing $3 billion and all other $421 million.
EDS announced the expansion of its SAP consulting practice:By collaborating with SAP on client engagement training and techniques that will drive the long-term growth of its consulting practice, EDS will further enhance its existing SAP capabilities and bring end-to-end SAP consulting and systems integration to the market by early 2008. Additionally, EDS will work closely with SAP's Global Partner and Ecosystem Group for market penetration and value-added customer offerings.
Locations
EDS operated in 66 countries,Locations, EDS Website with the largest numbers of employees in the cities of Detroit, Michigan, United States; Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, US; São Paulo, Brazil; Washington, D.C., US; Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Rome and Milan, Italy; Paris, France; Adelaide, Australia; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US; Sydney, Australia; Blackpool, UK; Sacramento, California, US; Tyneside, UK; Madrid and Barcelona, Spain; Lisbon, Portugal; Antwerp, Belgium and Frankfurt, Germany. Other major facilities were in Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Egypt, Germany, Hungary, India, Dublin, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, South Africa, Spain and the United Kingdom.
In 1992 the Plano EDS Headquarters campus comprising two eight-story buildings connected by an upper level bridge of office space was opened. The campus consists of 3,521,000 square feet (327,100 m2) of office and data center space on 270 acres (110 ha) of land. The campus included four Tier-IV data centers, a command center, four clusters of office buildings, a fitness center, a service station, four helipads and a hangar.
A development plan was proposed to make it the center of the 2,665-acre (1,078 ha) Legacy in PlanoLegacy in Plano real estate development, which EDS built.
In 2026, after various owners attempted to sell or lease it, the EDS complex was demolished to make way for a new AT&T global headquarters.
Sponsorships