HPE CEO Meg Whitman HPE The rumored sale of Hewlett-Packard's Enterprise's software unit was officially announced today.

The company says it is creating a company with Micro Focus for the unit in a transaction worth $8.8 billion including 50.1% ownership of the new combined company by HPE shareholders and a $2.5 billion cash payment to HPE.

This is becoming a favorite strategy for CEO Meg Whitman. In May, she announced a plan to spin out the company's troubled consulting services unit with CSC, a former rival in this area. HPE also owns half of that new company.

Here's the press release.

September 07, 2016 16:05 ET

HPE Accelerates Strategy With Spin-Off and Merger of Non-Core Software Assets With Micro Focus

HPE to Retain Key Software Assets to Deliver on the Promise of Hybrid IT

PALOMeg Whitman, President and Chief Executive Officer of HPE.

Partnership with SUSE

In addition, HPE and Micro Focus announced plans for a commercial partnership that will name SUSE as HPE's preferred Linux partner and will bring together HPE's Helion OpenStack and Stackato solutions with SUSE's OpenStack expertise to provide best-in-class enterprise-grade hybrid cloud offerings for HPE customers.

Positioning HPE for the Future

With approximately $28 billion in annual revenue, the future HPE will have significant scale, a diversified, world-class portfolio and a global footprint to meet the evolving needs of its customers and partners.

The company will be an industry leader in delivering secure hybrid IT solutions, leveraging its world-class portfolio of software-defined servers, storage, networking and converged infrastructure. HPE's newly created Software-Defined and Cloud business will build upon key software assets like