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HP Names Meg Whitman President and Chief Executive Officer

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Re: HP Names Meg Whitman President and Chief Executive Officer

#31

Post by mturmon »

mortenjorck wrote: post #29
makecheck wrote: post #2

What I find funny about such rapid changes is, can they reverse any of his decisions? For instance, will HP magically announce they're not really leaving the PC business and will be shipping new tablets?

The simple fact of having dumped the old CEO could at least lend a bit of credibility to reversing course on WebOS. Not a lot, to be sure, but definitely a nonzero amount, unlike the present state of WebOS.

Doubt this. Layoffs within the WebOS division were announced three days ago, and are underway this week:

http://allthingsd.com/20110919/layoffs-at-hps-palm-division/

Re: HP Names Meg Whitman President and Chief Executive Officer

#32

Post by T_S_ »

Will we ever rid ourselves of corporate-speak? How many bits of information here?

“We are fortunate to have someone of Meg Whitman’s caliber and experience step up to lead HP,” said Lane. “We are at a critical moment and we need renewed leadership to successfully implement our strategy and take advantage of the market opportunities ahead. Meg is a technology visionary with a proven track record of execution. She is a strong communicator who is customer focused with deep leadership capabilities. Furthermore, as a member of HP’s board of directors for the past eight months, Meg has a solid understanding of our products and markets.”

Re: HP Names Meg Whitman President and Chief Executive Officer

#33

Post by potatolicious »

0x12 wrote: post #21
slantyyz wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"A while" being days, assuming Yahoo counts. Of course, there's the ongoing smaller trainwreck waiting to happen called RIM. --edit-- let's not forget Netflix either.

A RIM trainwreck would see QnX in new hands, that would be interesting.

RIM is betting the farm on QNX, they have a death grip on it. If it goes anywhere it'll be down with the captain of the ship.

The only scenario in which QNX is likely to be sold, from what I can see, is when creditors are disassembling RIM piece by piece. At that point, is there enough of QNX left to save?

Re: HP Names Meg Whitman President and Chief Executive Officer

#34

Post by astrodust »

0x12 wrote: post #8

HP is as good as dead. It will take a long time to die but they're now officially the Yahoo! of hardware. Brand damage this severe is going to be very very hard to fix.

They're going to chart a path like SGI. From industry leader to historical footnote.

Re: HP Names Meg Whitman President and Chief Executive Officer

#35

Post by 0x12 »

potatolicious wrote: post #33
0x12 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A RIM trainwreck would see QnX in new hands, that would be interesting.

RIM is betting the farm on QNX, they have a death grip on it. If it goes anywhere it'll be down with the captain of the ship. The only scenario in which QNX is likely to be sold, from what I can see, is when creditors are disassembling RIM piece by piece. At that point, is there enough of QNX left to save?

QnX will survive in one form or another if only because so many defense contractors rely on it. (and RTOS of course).

One can only hope that it would be open sourced under a permissive license in such a situation but I highly doubt that will ever happen.

Re: HP Names Meg Whitman President and Chief Executive Officer

#36

Post by 0x12 »

astrodust wrote: post #34
0x12 wrote: post #8

HP is as good as dead. It will take a long time to die but they're now officially the Yahoo! of hardware. Brand damage this severe is going to be very very hard to fix.

They're going to chart a path like SGI. From industry leader to historical footnote.

It hurts just to think about that.

In a weird way I'm happy that Hewlett and Packard are not around to witness this, to see the work of a lifetime butchered like this is just too painful.

Re: HP Names Meg Whitman President and Chief Executive Officer

#37

Post by unexpected »

slantyyz wrote: post #19
jordan0day wrote: post #12

I'm sure the HP board is full of smart people, so my question is: what's next? Over the past decade they've seemingly made so many more poor decisions relative to good decisions, I have to imagine they feel a lot of heat to do something... redeeming? I mean, they're still a very large and very powerful company, and I think predictions of their impending doom are highly overblown, but they've certainly been dealt some…

HP's board might be full of smart people who make stupid decisions. HP's board started the decline by hiring Carly Fiorina, being a part of the pre-texting scandal, hiring and then firing Hurd, and now hiring and firing Apotheker. Perhaps it's time to clean house at the board level.

It's important to note that the Board that hired Apothekar is very different from the Board that's firing Apothekar

See Cringley's post for more details.

Re: HP Names Meg Whitman President and Chief Executive Officer

#38

Post by alttag »

I said earlier Whitman would be on my short list of bad choices for the job. I spent some time today thinking about who I would pick.

Someone with experience at a product company, that had to oversee design, manufacturing, and logistics. (Ebay is clearly not this.) Also, someone with experience at a services company with a track record of success. (Despite service--and SaaS--experience, Ebay "survived" rather than "succeeded", and in my judgement is not this either.) Someone who doesn't look to acquisitions as a primary way to expand the company's strategy. (Skype is evidence Ebay isn't this.) Someone who can communicate effectively with both the public and internal stakeholder. (A failed gubernatorial bid suggests few people were buying what Whitman was selling.)

In every relevant category, Whitman doesn't make the cut.

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