Dell gets bigger and Hewlett Packard gets smaller in separate deals

San Francisco

MICHAEL Dell and Meg Whitman may be business competitors, but they can each claim a technology industry superlative. One has overseen one of the largest mergers in the tech industry. The other has engineered its biggest breakup.

Different as they seem, both deals were in reaction to tough competition and declining markets. And so far, neither has provided a clear way for how a storied giant can survive changes, like the rise of so-called cloud computing, that are undermining the way they operate.

On Wednesday, Mr Dell, who 32 years ago started a personal computer (PC) business from his college dorm room, of…