Samsung Electronics said Monday it approved the sale of its printer business unit to HP Inc. Samsung has reached an agreement to sell the entire global operations and assets of its printing business to HP for $1.05 billion. Samsung said that the transaction is part of the company’s efforts to concentrate on its core business areas.

The merger opens up a path for HP to focus more on the copier market and get its hands on laser-printing technology.

Samsung will spin off the Printing Business Unit into a separate company as of Nov. 1 upon the approval of shareholders, and sell a 100 percent stake of the newly created company and overseas assets related to the business to HP.

Under the agreement, Samsung will source printers from HP and continue to market in Korea under the Samsung brand. The transaction is expected to close within one year, subject to the appropriate regulatory approvals.

The printing business, with 6,000 employees, a production base in China as well as more than 50 sales offices globally, posted 2 trillion Korean won in revenue in 2015.