PALO ALTO — In what would be Silicon Valley’s biggest corporate break-up, legendary tech colossus Hewlett-Packard intends to split into two roughly equal companies, according to an analyst who said he was briefed on the plan and a news report.

One company would include its personal computer and printer unit, and the other would consist of its business-oriented hardware and software operations.

The move, which the Palo Alto giant is expected to announce as early as Monday, has long been advocated by some industry experts. That’s partly because sales of PCs and printers are sluggish, given the consumer shift to smartphones and tablets. Moreover, they said, HP’s business software and hardware division has little in common with the PC-printer unit, so splitting them into different companies would allow each to focus more on their separate markets.

“I’m in support of it,” said Baird Equity Research analyst Jayson Noland, who doubted such a divorce would diminish the stature of HP, which has about 300,000 employees and had a staggering $112 billion in sales last year, second only to Apple among Silicon Valley companies. “The company is so big now, cutting it in half, it’s still huge.”

But Ezra Gottheil, an analyst with Technology Business Research, said he was taken aback by the news.

“I’m surprised,” Gottheil said. “I’m not a fan of this idea,” because the PC and printer division — while not booming — contribute significantly to the company, so “I’m not sure I quite understand it.”

Merged into one division in 2012 by CEO Meg Whitman, their combined sales total almost exactly half of HP’s annual revenue.

Gottheil also noted that Whitman has insisted repeatedly that she wanted to retain it, arguing that HP’s uniqueness and attractiveness to customers hinged on its wide variety of products.

“I believe we are best-positioned” in the industry “because of the breadth of our offerings,” she told analysts in October last year. At another time, she called printer sales “the lifeblood of HP.”

HP spokeswoman Sarah Pompei said the Palo Alto-based company would have no comment on the matter.

The analyst who said HP informed him confidentially about the plan on Sunday and who asked not to be identified said he was told little about how the two business units would be separated.

However, The Wall Street Journal — citing unnamed people familiar with the matter — reported on its website Sunday that Whitman would become chairman of the personal computer and printer business, and CEO of the company that includes software and such business hardware as networking routers and data-storage devices. It said HP director Patricia Russo would become chairman of the enterprise hardware and software company and that HP executive Dion Weisler would run the PC and printer business. The PC/printer company would be called HP Inc., and the enterprise company will be named Hewlett-Packard Enterprise.

Separating the two types of businesses is not a new idea.

“That’s been under discussion for a decade or so,” said tech analyst Rob Enderle. But it probably makes more sense now because HP and other companies are trying to focus on selling software and Internet-based services, which tend to be highly profitable. In addition, he said, big corporations are coming under increasing pressure from investors to become more efficient by splitting into smaller, more nimble operations.

Just last week, eBay announced it was spinning off its PayPal operation into an independent company, despite previously resisting demands that it do so by activist investor Carl Icahn. Enderle said HP may wind up looking a lot like IBM, which previously spun off its PC operations.

“The advantage is you have two very focused businesses that can operate in a manner than serves customers better,” said tech analyst Patrick Moorhead, noting that the product cycles and customers are vastly different at HP’s two divisions. But he cautioned that a potential downside to the break-up might be that the divisions would lose the enormous clout they now have when negotiating with parts suppliers for discounted prices.

Founded in 1939 by Stanford University pals Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, HP became a world-renowned tech innovator. But it has stumbled in recent years. Prior to Whitman being named chief executive in 2011, the previous three CEOs had either been fired or resigned under pressure from the board. And with PC sales stagnant, the company has made several highly questionable corporate purchases to try to bolster its product line.

Among the worst such deals was its $11 billion purchase of British software company Autonomy. Shortly after buying the firm, HP wrote off about $8.8 billion worth of Autonomy’s value, saying HP was misled about the company’s worth. HP has asked U.S. and British authorities to investigate Autonomy’s former leadership, who have denied any wrongdoing and accuse HP of botching Autonomy’s business.

In addition, after recently laying off 34,000 workers, HP announced in May that it’s trimming its ranks by another 11,000 to 16,000 employees. It is unclear what this proposed break-up would mean for the company’s employees and whether there would be additional layoffs.

This would not be the first time HP has split up the company. In 1999, it spun off Agilent, which made test instruments and other products and boasted annual sales of about $8 billion.

Contact Steve Johnson at 408-920-5043. Follow him at Twitter.com/steveatmercnews.