HP CEO Mark Hurd is taking a risk by bidding for troubled services player EDS. Image: HP

Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd has built a world-class reputation as a cost-cutting turnaround artist, and he’s risking it all with a smart bid for technology services giant Electronic Data Systems.

HP (HPQ) announced Tuesday that it would pay $13.9 billion in cash for Texas-based EDS (EDS), which manages technology projects for a range of large clients. If HP does it right, buying EDS is the business equivalent of a triple-play. In one fell swoop HP is more than doubling the revenue of its services arm, mounting a more serious threat to IBM (IBM), and shutting down a distribution channel for other competitors.

Xerox technology chief Sophie Vandebroek is placing bets on technologies to spur growth. Image: Xerox

Xerox (XRX) PARC has come a long way. A generation ago, the Palo Alto Research Center famously developed many of the technologies that led to modern PCs from folks like Apple (AAPL) and Dell (DELL), but never got them beyond the lab. Today the unit is determined to get its inventions out of the lab, even if it means sacrificing secrecy.

To underscore that point, the company’s normally secretive Silicon Valley researchers and their colleagues from around the world held an open house this week to show off surprising projects they’re developing. Among them: A blood scanner that uses a twist on laser printing technology to spot rogue cells, a type of paper that can be erased by ultraviolet light and reused, and a new hybrid plastic that’s partly made of corn and grass.