HP thinks big about printing; Acquires NUR Macroprinters

Hewlett-Packard scooped up NUR Macroprinters, an Israeli company that specializes in wide-format printing, for $117.5 million.

With the move, announced Monday, HP is delving deeper into commercial printing and graphic design. NUR makes UV-curable and solvent inkjet printers that are used for display graphics, signs, billboards and other products. The picture on the right is an example of what NUR's equipment produces.

HP in September acquired MacDermid ColorSpan, which also makes wide-format digital inkjet printers. That printing market offers faster growth and HP obviously plans on being a consolidator.

HP's strategy is to focus on the graphic design crowd with its printers. What Adobe is to graphic designers in terms of software, HP hopes to become for hardware.