The stock market hates HP's new strategy • Hacker News Board

Re: The stock market hates HP's new strategy

#21

Post by truthout » Fri, Aug 19, 2011, 5:04 PM UTC

ansy wrote: post #12

This was perhaps a good plan delivered with the poorest tact. The reality distortion field seems to be working in reverse for Leo & Co. Moving toward an enterprise only strategy could make HP healthier and more profitable in the long run. It may even reap additional benefits from a consolidation of vision. The PSG offers less and less synergy with the rest of the company with each passing year. Especially if WebOS is…

If you think you're right and the market is wrong, you should buy the stock.

This is what makes a market. I you are right, you will make money. If you're wrong, you lose.

Re: The stock market hates HP's new strategy

#22

Post by truthout » Fri, Aug 19, 2011, 5:07 PM UTC

notatoad wrote: post #4

the market always hates big risky decisions. it isn't any indicator of whether it is a good choice or not.

Umm.. Yes it is. The market thinks it's a bad decision. If you disagree, buy the stock. A stock doesn't drop 20% for no reason. Overpaying for a software company and dropping webos, tr maker thinks it's a BAD decision.

If you think otherwise buy the stock and profit.

Re: The stock market hates HP's new strategy

#23

Post by justincormack » Fri, Aug 19, 2011, 5:09 PM UTC

ansy wrote: post #12

This was perhaps a good plan delivered with the poorest tact. The reality distortion field seems to be working in reverse for Leo & Co. Moving toward an enterprise only strategy could make HP healthier and more profitable in the long run. It may even reap additional benefits from a consolidation of vision. The PSG offers less and less synergy with the rest of the company with each passing year. Especially if WebOS is…

Personally I think that big enterprise software and its sales model, as perfected by Oracle and SAP is dead long term, it will be killed by an on demand cloud products. HP maybe had a chance to get into this market eventually, and WebOS was part of his strategy.

But instead they decided to chase last decades model which makes high margins in the short term.

And why does no one want to try to compete with Apple?

Re: The stock market hates HP's new strategy

#24

Post by guelo » Fri, Aug 19, 2011, 5:10 PM UTC

Another MBA type killing a great tech company. I don't understand why it doesn't occur to these boards that engineers/technologists/innovators should lead tech companies. For some reason they can't imagine that technology can save a technology company. It wasn't some genius business maneuver that turned Apple into the biggest company in the world, it was genius technology.

Re: The stock market hates HP's new strategy

#25

Post by Finnster » Fri, Aug 19, 2011, 5:21 PM UTC

What does a company like HP usually do when they have thousands of unsold tablets like this? Take them back and throw them in a landfill or will there ever be a clearance sale?

Re: The stock market hates HP's new strategy

#26

Post by waterside81 » Fri, Aug 19, 2011, 5:21 PM UTC

aresant wrote: post #10

Barron's nails it: a) "decision to cease all webOS devices (including the TouchPad) a mere 48 days after the launch" - Leadership doesn't know what they're doing w/acquisitions. b) "expensive acquisition of Autonomy" - $10b to jump into a new market via acquisition which we just proved we're not good at. c) "material layoffs" and "talent drain over the next 12-24 months' - I believe this. Current talent bails. Changi…

I have to give the HP board the benefit of the doubt that when they hired the new CEO they knew he'd steer them in this direction. He used to work at SaS so his expertise is software services. He must have told them in the recruitment/appointment process that he'd give some things a shot (webOS, TouchPad etc.) and failing that, he'd steer them towards services and become more like IBM.

I made a lot of assumptions, but again, giving people benefit of the doubt.

Re: The stock market hates HP's new strategy

#27

Post by ansy » Fri, Aug 19, 2011, 5:26 PM UTC

justincormack wrote: post #23

ansy wrote: post #12

This was perhaps a good plan delivered with the poorest tact. The reality distortion field seems to be working in reverse for Leo & Co. Moving toward an enterprise only strategy could make HP healthier and more profitable in the long run. It may even reap additional benefits from a consolidation of vision. The PSG offers less and less synergy with the rest of the company with each passing year. Especially if WebOS is…

Personally I think that big enterprise software and its sales model, as perfected by Oracle and SAP is dead long term, it will be killed by an on demand cloud products. HP maybe had a chance to get into this market eventually, and WebOS was part of his strategy. But instead they decided to chase last decades model which makes high margins in the short term. And why does no one want to try to compete with Apple?

What? The cloud IS Oracle, IBM, SAP, and HP's future revenue model. They are going to build the cloud, build the enterprise cloud services, and bill out consultants specializing in the cloud. HP's future is nothing but the cloud moving forward. HP makes the servers that are the cloud. HP's business software will sit on its servers instead of yours. HP's consultants will charge you $$$ to tell you which services work for you, provision everything, configure it, do the integration, and host it for you in the cloud for a recurring monthly fee per user.

WebOS has nothing to do with capitalizing on the cloud. It's just one of many clients to the cloud.

Re: The stock market hates HP's new strategy

#28

Post by dman » Fri, Aug 19, 2011, 5:29 PM UTC

justincormack wrote: post #23

ansy wrote: post #12

This was perhaps a good plan delivered with the poorest tact. The reality distortion field seems to be working in reverse for Leo & Co. Moving toward an enterprise only strategy could make HP healthier and more profitable in the long run. It may even reap additional benefits from a consolidation of vision. The PSG offers less and less synergy with the rest of the company with each passing year. Especially if WebOS is…

Personally I think that big enterprise software and its sales model, as perfected by Oracle and SAP is dead long term, it will be killed by an on demand cloud products. HP maybe had a chance to get into this market eventually, and WebOS was part of his strategy. But instead they decided to chase last decades model which makes high margins in the short term. And why does no one want to try to compete with Apple?

Its hard to compete against a religion.

Re: The stock market hates HP's new strategy

#29

Post by edw519 » Fri, Aug 19, 2011, 5:30 PM UTC

I said, "No, I'm never going to leave Hewlett-Packard. It's my job for life. It's the best company because it's so good to engineers." It really treated us like we were a community and family, and everyone cared about everyone else. Engineers—bottom of the org chart people—could come up with the ideas that would be the next hot products for the company. Everything was open to thought, discussion and innovation. So I would never leave Hewlett-Packard. I was going to be an engineer for life there.

- Steve Wozniak, interviewed by Jessica Livingston in "Founders at Work"

http://www.foundersatwork.com/steve-wozniak.html

How sad that it's come to this.

Re: The stock market hates HP's new strategy

#30

Post by Osiris » Fri, Aug 19, 2011, 5:31 PM UTC

Finnster wrote: post #25

What does a company like HP usually do when they have thousands of unsold tablets like this? Take them back and throw them in a landfill or will there ever be a clearance sale?

I'm waiting to see how I can get my free TouchPad. Better to put it to use than the throw it away, right?