Hewlett-Packard is planning to spinoff its PC business, according to Bloomberg.

An HP corporate spokesman declined to comment on the Bloomberg report, and neither would he reveal to us whether the news might be announced during the company's third-quarter earnings call, to be webcast at the close of US markets on Thursday.

Bloomberg also reported that the same "people familiar with the company's plans" said that HP would spend $10bn to acquire enterprise software company Autonomy, with which HP has had a partnership since 2007.

In its most-recent financial quarter, HP – the world's largest computer maker – earned $533m from its Personal Systems Group on revenues of $9.4bn. ®