Hewlett-Packard plans to separate its personal-computer and printer businesses from its corporate hardware and services operations, the latest attempt by the technology company to improve its fortunes by breaking itself in two.

The company intends to announce the move on Monday, people familiar with the plan said. It is expected to make the split through a tax-free distribution of shares to stockholders next year, said one of the people. If the division goes off as planned, it would give rise to two publicly traded companies, each with more than $50 billion in annual revenue. A number of big companies, including eBay in tech, have chosen to break up lately, in part because of a belief that operations with different growth profiles are best managed as separate entities. 

H-P, which has suffered sharp sales declines, sees better long-term potential for its corporate hardware and services business than for its printer and PC unit, said one person familiar with the plan.

Ralph Whitworth, an H-P investor who until recently was its chairman, said about the news in a text message Sunday: “This would be a brilliant move at just the right moment in the turnaround. It would liberate significant trapped value.” As of June, the firm Mr. Whitworth co-founded, Relational Investors LLC, owned a roughly 1.5% stake in the company.

The impending move, first reported Sunday by The Wall Street Journal, set off a round of speculation in the industry about whether the separation could lead to more deal making.

Read the full story at The Wall Street Journal.