There was much in Xerox’s unsolicited and very much unwanted offer to buy HP for the latter to be skeptical about. The wisdom of a tie-up, Carl Icahn’s thirst for one notwithstanding, to begin with. But before getting to the whether, when and by what means these two companies should get hitched, or even the more fundamental question of why HP would want anything to do with a failing enterprise like Xerox, HP was skeptical of a $33.5 billion offer from a company worth $8 billion. With what one can only imagine was a paternalistic eye-roll and a somewhat dismissive, “Show me the money and then we’ll talk,” HP walked away.