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28 Oct 2011 09:00

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Biz, Tech: Hewlett-Packard’s Meg Whitman reverses her predecessor’s moves

  • The market was created by Apple. That doesn’t mean there couldn’t be a strong No. 2 player.
  • Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman • Reversing course entirely on two of former CEO Leo Apotheker’s key decisions as CEO — the departure of the tablet market (and the ensuing lulz) and the spinning off of the PC market. As for the latter, Whitman claims it would’ve been far too expensive — it would’ve cost billions and would’ve proven extremely inefficient. “If you try to hive a division off, it’s really hard because you almost have to recreate the whole thing,” she said. Will this be enough? source

22 Sep 2011 19:40

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Tech: Blame HP’s incompetent board for its recent CEO troubles

  • These guys are a bunch of clowns, surpassed in incompetence only by Yahoo’s board.
  • Ironfire Capital managing member Eric Jackson • Expressing frustration with the Hewlett-Packard board, which reportedly leaked the news of Leo Apotheker’s ousting, and subsequent replacement with former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, hours before the announcement was to be made. Not that Jackson is a big fan of Apotheker or anything. “Apotheker is the worst CEO hire in the last decade,” he says. But the problem is the process that led to his hiring — some messy rumors and an internal investigation led to the board dumping a pretty good CEO, Mark Hurd, and hiring Apotheker without even meeting him — meant that he turned out to be a horrible fit. Whitman at least has a shot at being good at this CEO thing, but the board sounds like the real problem. source

22 Sep 2011 12:47

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Biz: Meg Whitman reportedly on track to become HP’s new CEO

Many people compared Carly Fiorina and Meg Whitman during the 2010 election, due to their tech executive backgrounds and their high-profile rookie political campaigns. Soon, they’ll have another reason. source

30 Aug 2011 21:09

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Tech: Get this: Hewlett-Packard making more Touchpads to keep up with demand

  • The speed at which it disappeared from inventory has been stunning. We have decided to produce one last run of TouchPads to meet unfulfilled demand.
  • A statement from Hewlett-Packard • Revealing that the company’s late-round success with the HP TouchPad was enough that they’re going to produce more of them and sell them at fire-sale prices. Which is hilarious, and tells us all that the decision to stop selling them was perhaps a little too rash. Good work, HP! source

19 Aug 2011 11:11

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Biz, Tech: Hewlett Packard’s stock reflects yesterday’s poor decision-making

  • » Investors were NOT happy with the news: HP fell down to its lowest level in years — a level so low that they last time it was at this nadir, Carly Fiorina had just left the company. We think this should tell HP something — killing off the race horse (WebOS) immediately after it starts the race is terrible business strategy, and investors will not react kindly to this. That was your future, HP, and you blew it because you had no idea how to feasibly make it work.

17 May 2011 14:01

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Biz: Hewlett-Packard blames Japanese earthquake for problems

  • $5 the earnings per share Hewlett-Packard, the PC maker, expects to make by the end of the fiscal year; their shares are up from May 2010
  • $5.24 the earnings per share Wall Street expected; their stocks fell because of the predicted hardships that lie ahead for the company source
  • » A leaked memo from the CEO is to blame: The memo by Leo Apotheker caused the company’s stocks to fall. He cited the Japanese earthquake and weak PC sales as reasons to reduce hiring and prepare for another rough quarter. Even though their stocks are up from last year, they aren’t meeting market predictions, causing people to sell their shares in the company. Apparently, it’s causing the stock market to slow down overall. Yikes.

08 Sep 2010 10:56

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Tech: Oracle CEO Larry Ellison to HP: What’s up with this lawsuit?

  • The HP Board is making it virtually impossible for Oracle and HP to continue to cooperate and work together in the IT marketplace.
  • Oracle CEO Larry Ellison • Responding to the lawsuit the company filed against Mark Hurd, the dude he’s trying to hire as his new president. Ellison notes that before now, the relationship between the two companies has been positive. In other news, the lawsuit and new job could affect Hurd’s $35 million severance plan. source
 

07 Sep 2010 21:08

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Tech: HP to Mark Hurd: You can’t join Oracle! You have our trade secrets!

  • In his new positions, Hurd will be in a situation in which he cannot perform his duties for Oracle without necessarily using and disclosing HP’s trade secrets and confidential information to others.
  • A statement from HP’s corporate blog • Explaining why they filed a civil complaint against former CEO Mark Hurd, who is headed in the general direction of Oracle. To put it simply, HP is afraid that Hurd will leverage the information he knows about the company at his new job – a reasonable concern. A now-former Apple exec, Mark Papermaster, went through something similar when he left IBM. source

08 Aug 2010 22:32

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Biz: The accuser in the Mark Hurd case, Jodie Fisher, has an IMDB page

  • I was surprised and saddened that Mark Hurd lost his job over this. That was never my intention.
  • Former HP contractor Jodie Fisher • Discussing the now-settled situation between her and ousted former HP CEO Mark Hurd. Despite earlier suggestions that they did the do, Fisher, who has starred in such films as “Easy Rider: The Ride Back” and “Blood Dolls,” hired Gloria Allred as her attorney, which instantly makes any claims of regret suspect. If it was seriously your intention, you wouldn’t have hired Ms. Allred. Just sayin’. source

06 Aug 2010 17:39

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Biz: HP CEO Mark Hurd’s fall from grace: Why we blame WebOS

  • harbinger Two months ago, HP CEO Mark Hurd said something idiotic – he suggested that Palm’s WebOS would be useless on phones and they’d use it for printers instead.
  • failure Today, Hurd resigned – the result of a sexual harassment probe regarding a contractor he had an improper relationship with. Coincidence? We think not. source