Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) is Back on the Acquisition Trail

Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) is looking to make more purchases, both big and small.

During an interview with Reuters on Thursday, Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman said that the company was back on the market for acquisitions. Value of target companies could start at $100 million and run all the way up to $1.5 billion.

Though she didn't specify targets during the interview, Whitman did say that Acquisitions will become part of our future, to further some of our strategic initiatives and shore up some of the product holes ... We don't need a five or six billion dollar acquisition. I think there are acquisitions in the $100 million, $300 million range, maybe some up to 1 to $1.5 billion that we might be interested in.

Whitman also didn't rule out the possibility of breaking-up or doing some asset sales.

Hewlett-Packard reported cash and equivalents of $13.2 billion through the end of last quarter and, putting its debt load aside, that's a lot of leverage for the Company to work out a few deals. Could be multiple $1.5 billion purchases, or over 100 $100 million buys.

Shares of Hewlett-Packard are down 12.5 percent.

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