News - HP reportedly mulling another CEO change

[HEXUS]

A couple of reports claim the HP board is looking to ditch Leo Apotheker after less than a year.

Read more.

[scaryjim]

HP's shares jumped by over six percent once the stories broke.

Well played HP insiders, well played

[rs4847]

I wish Nokia's board and shareholders would do the same.

[McEwin]

UPDATE - 10:40, 22 September 2011 - While we were writing this story we found ourselves wondering whether this HP board is even worse than the Yahoo one. An article we've just read from the NYT reveals such board-level dysfunction at HP as to make Yahoo's look merely useless by comparison.

Brilliant!

[Gordy]

Could HP be more clueless at the moment. I think the CEO had a sort of OK idea. PC's is such a poor business to be in for the manufacturers. However the execution of the plan was utterly terrible, the threw away good value in both WebOS and the PC side. Utterly crazy, if I was on the board I would have demanded a better plan. Once they went with it though, they have to go through with it, not start second guessing the decision.

[crossy]

Could HP be more clueless at the moment. I think the CEO had a sort of OK idea. PC's is such a poor business to be in for the manufacturers. However the execution of the plan was utterly terrible, the threw away good value in both WebOS and the PC side. Utterly crazy, if I was on the board I would have demanded a better plan. Once they went with it though, they have to go through with it, not start second guessing the decision.

As you say - getting out of low/no margin PC's was probably a smart move, but the way they/he did it must be a contender for an entry in "All Time Bonehead Play" book (Ace Ventura). Maybe HP investors should be lobbying for a change in board rather than CEO?

Personally, I also think the webOS product line announcement was pretty well bungled - they should have let it run longer, and perhaps dropped the price to the point where it was pretty much break even. I'm convinced that a TouchPad at say £250 would have sold reasonably. And then at least you can take an established product line out there to look for a new buyer for the group.

I'm now going to leap to Leo's defence - sure he's made some real "bonehead plays" and folks are now real confused as to what HP actually does. On the other hand, he's undoubtedly managed to increase morale from where it was under Mark Turd. And unlike that unloved and unmissed predecessor, at least Leo's making the right noises about "valuing" the HP staff. As opposed to MH, who clearly regarded staff as an uncomfortable overhead to be got rid of at the first, and every subsequent, opportunity!

My worry would be who would be a suitable successor. Scott McNealy at least has a "name", and Sun under him did some good things in the open source line. Whether others are also seriously in the frame I don't know - just as long as they don't get the old CEO back, (as some commentators have suggested would be a good idea). Seriously I can't see how anyone could respect a boss who apparently got caught (repeatedly by all reports) fiddling expenses - if it'd been a low ranking body doing the same then they'd have been prosecuted.

But this is just my view-from-the-trenches.

[Avenger1324]

If this does pan out I wonder if the new CEO would reverse any of the recent decisions in terms of the direction they plan to take the company

[badass]

I disagree with all of this Mark Hurd love that's going on right now.
It's pretty east to boost short term profits by cutting back on R&D pay cuts for everyone.
HP servers used to sell for 30% more than identically specced Dell ones, yet they servers than anyone else. So Carly Fiorina and later Mark Hurd decided that since people were willing to pay more for HP servers than others and that they were still outselling their rivals the best thing to do was to cut back on the quality and compete on price.
Most companies dream of making their brand relatively price elastic and to have a premium attached to it, yet this bunch of muppets threw that away in chasing volume.
Unsurprisingly, IBM have now overtaken HP on revenue. Leo might be an idiot but that doesn't stop his predecessors from also being knuckle dragging morons that just happen to be better blaggers.

[Scott B]

Best response I've seen to the prospect of Meg Whitman being made CEO: "Wow, why not Carol Bartz?"

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

It seems Meg Whitman has been confirmed as CEO:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2...?newsfeed=true

[peterb]

Bit more on this...

]http://www.bgr.com/2011/09/22/official-meg-whitman-replaces-apotheker-as-hp-ceo/[/url]

Not sure whether this will mean a reprieve for the touchpad though, or even WebOS.

[crossy]

It seems Meg Whitman has been confirmed as CEO:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2...?newsfeed=true

Yep, got the "I'm going" email from Leo and the "Hello" one from Meg this morning on the company mail. At least we managed to avoid getting Mark Turd back again.

Should I be worried that MW's wikipedia page prominently lists one of achievements as "bringing the Teletubbies to America"?

[Gordy]

Yep, got the "I'm going" email from Leo and the "Hello" one from Meg this morning on the company mail. At least we managed to avoid getting Mark Turd back again.

Should I be worried that MW's wikipedia page prominently lists one of achievements as "bringing the Teletubbies to America"?

Instead you get someone who's been on the board "overseeing" most of the recent disasters. I'd be very uncomfortable as an HP shareholder these days. I would be trying to make the board just as uncomfortable.

[badass]

Instead you get someone who's been on the board "overseeing" most of the recent disasters. I'd be very uncomfortable as an HP shareholder these days. I would be trying to make the board just as uncomfortable.

I am an HP shareholder and I want their heads on a plate!

[Gordy]

I am an HP shareholder and I want their heads on a plate!

Complete with an apple in their mouths?