HP appears to have confirmed its desire to sell off the world's biggest PC business after backpeddling since first raising the idea earlier this month. The company shocked the industry when it announced plans to sell or spin-off its Personal Systems Group, but the company appeared to back track last week, with one British executive claiming HP was "committed to creating and supporting great products". Now, the company says it's working out the implications of separating PCs from the rest of its business and still expects a separation within 18 months. "We prefer a spin-off as a separate company and the working hypotheses is that a spin-off will be in the best interests of HP's shareholders, customers and employees," a HP spokeswoman told the Reuters news agency. "However, we have to complete the diligence process and validate this assumption, including fully understanding the dis-synergies in separating the PSG business from HP."

Hewlett Packard Australia did not respond to requests for comment by the time of publication.

Meanwhile HP’s discontinued TouchPad will get one last burst of production before the plug is pulled, the company announced via its blog.