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And be run by a former big wig at eBay (yes I can spell it out right here because I am talking about a corporation)!! How about that! I hope they will eject Apotheker's behind!!!

Edited: 21 Sept 2011, 3:08 p.m.

I'm sure Bill and Dave would be rotating in their graves, if they knew what those overpaid manager *ssh*les are doing to their once proud company...

An article on Slashdot today includes this link in a comment posted:
http://www.cringely.com/2011/02/why-leo-apotheker-will-be-fired-from-hewlett-packard/

If the ax is going to fall, let it fall now.

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I'm sure Bill and Dave would be rotating in their graves

It's part of the HP Going Green (tm) strategy. They've hooked up a generator and are using it to power corporate facilities. Dontcha know.

TW

PS - 7 months ago - Even got the "replacement" right.

Great link, thanks!

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Apotheker certainly qualified on those terms with the only downsides being his lack of hardware experience and that he’d been fired from SAP after only seven months.

I hadn't known that. This guy is incredible. A regular bomb.

Well, now that this is half out, I think it's almost a certainty.

I hope they will reverse the switch to SW and services idea, stop the insane Autonomy deal, and get back to what they're good at.

Sounds like it bodes well for the calculator group, too. Yay!

(I'm surprised how unprofessionally this is all conducted. Publicly announcing they *may* sell the PC business, they *may* fire the CEO..)

HP can still get into the software business a-la IBM, but they can do it slowly and gradually without axing existing business units. As the new software BU do well, they can transfer managers from the hardware BUs. At one point they can have a choice of keeping all of the BUs or selling the hardware-related ones (way down the road). Rushing into things is seldom the smart thing for huge corporations.

Edited: 21 Sept 2011, 3:37 p.m.

Quite popular method: raise the frequency of CEO changes to stabilize a tumbling company :-/ I doubt Mark Hurd would have had to resign in any other big economy of the western world for the reasons heard - but ok, it's the decision of the board. Nor is it up to me to judge Leo's performance - simply too short to see any major footprints at HP. But the apparent new choice needs a lot of explanations: a failed candidate for gouvernor, having no idea of neither SW nor HW - she's the best the board could find?!? Good luck, HP, you'll need it!

But she understands the internet, marketing and sales. What else does she need to know ?

Edited: 21 Sept 2011, 3:55 p.m.

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Wall Street wasted no time in roaring its approval, sending shares in the largest U.S. technology company by sales up more than 11 percent for a market value gain of nearly $5 billion.


HP employees at all levels must be feeling quite dizzy at this point. That's not good for business, but Wall Street really hated Apotheker's recent moves. Let's hope Meg Whitman's similarity to Carly Fiorina goes no farther than being the second ex-CEO Republican politician to lose in California last year.

Remember Carly? :-(

Wow! Cringley really nailed that one!

So whatever happens to HP under Meg will be Jerry Brown's fault? :)

Agree. However, it seems like the current CEO is a real "winner".

$35 million for failing - what a joke.

And NO to Meg Whitman either.


Edited: 21 Sept 2011, 11:40 p.m.

That is salary and benefits for over 200 college educated employees...

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[...] and get back to what they're good at.
What might that be? No rant intended, I'm asking seriously. The highest failure rate I had with consumer electronics was with HP. Marketing certainly doesn't belong to HPs strengths as well as cost cutting while preserving some level of quality isn't working for them. Also, I haven't seen any interesting inventions lately. What apparently remains is an attractive brand with not much behind it.

Please point out what's left.

:-(

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That is salary and benefits for over 200 college educated employees...



That may seem like a lot but keep in mind that a bad CEO can do far, far more damage to HP than 200 bad employees. So if you look at it that way, he is totally worth it :P

Meg probably rolled into the boardroom and amazed the board with the profits of HP calc's on eBay.

Forgot the :-)


Edited: 22 Sept 2011, 12:37 p.m.

And it is officially announced.

Meg Whitmand is announced as new CEO of HP

Edited: 22 Sept 2011, 4:32 p.m.

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[...] and get back to what they're good at.

What might that be? No rant intended, I'm asking seriously.

As you're asking seriously, I shall not respond with "calculators, of course."

I meant making and selling hardware.

HP is the #1 PC manufacturer in the world. By and large customers must approve of their products, or else HP wouldn't occupy that spot. It should be fair to call them "good at" something, based on this alone.

HP may not be the innovation engine it once was, but, as any technology company of their size, has deep pockets of innovation here and there. (One of them, arguably, the calculators group.)

I don't know much about HP's product lines, but I'm sure they're pushing the state of the art in a number of fields.

Also, HP has surely something left of the "HP Way".

Wikipedia tells us

"In September 2009, Newsweek ranked HP No.1 on its 2009 Green Rankings of America's 500 largest corporations"

and other things that indicate that HP is a "green" company.

If they're good at being green, they're good at their business, in my book, even if the business would be in boring commodity goods devoid of any innovation.

If you're doubtful that HP lives up to its potential with CEOs that knows zilch of technology and think about money before anything else, I'm with you. But this, of course, is the state of affairs with most big companies.

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It should be fair to call them "good at" something [...]
Yes, I admitted already they have an excellent brand name. You know both german idioms: "auf seinen Lorbeeren ausruhen" and "Straßen benennt man nach Toten". That fits it best.