Luiz,
I admire your loyalty, admiration, and respect for Mr. Hewlett and Packard. And I also think, even joking, people should post their real names.
Having said that, I think the writer is expressing his sadness over the state of HP and that the founders would be horrified with this development. He is using sarcasm to express this-- something I like to do maybe too often.
For example, our last free-standing mental hospital (the one I moved here for) is closing due to losing 2 million dollars a year. I've been "praising" this decision as a way to raise the insurance companies' CEO bonuses from 40 plus million to 42 plus million per year. (After all, aren't their bonuses more important than providing services to the people buying health insurance? One CEO in Iowa made a 20 million dollar bonus two years ago, but 200 million last year. The government is "looking into it" as the company laid off (fired) over 40 employees.)
See, I can't help myself either. HP's decision is actually related to this: profit is more important than quality when serving people.
My own opinion only: "When you put people before money, both will benefit. When you put money before people, both will suffer."
Damned idealist.
Michael