U.S. computer giant Hewlett-Packard Co announced that it plans to spin off its large, but low-margin personal computer business, and exit the tablet computing and smartphone businesses, while working to acquire a software firm in the U.K., reports said on Thursday.

HP said it was in discussions to buy Autonomy Corp., a Cambridge-based software company that analysts say is worth about $10 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal. Autonomy, founded in 1996 specializes in “meaning based computing” according to its web site, which allows “conceptual and contextual understanding of any piece of electronic data.”

HP paid $1.8 billion for smartphone maker Palm in 2009, mostly for the webOS software that powered the Devices, Associated Press reported.

The company’s began selling its version of the tablet, TouchPad, in July as a rival to Apple’s IPad, but by early August, it had cut the $500 price tag by 20 percent, the Journal report said.