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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

#41

Post by jeroen »

markokocic wrote: post #13

Not a good move. He started his job by doing some hard upfront decisions that he hoped will play in HP advantage in the long run. And the board cut him off at the point when he didn't even started the transformation. Now, who knows what will happen. The other possible explanation is that he knew that he is going to be scraped, and had enormous compensation for receiving the blame.

His total earnings from these 11 months seems to be $35 million. $9.8M in salary, signing bonus, etc, and $25.2M severence in cash and stock.

source: http://money.cnn.com/2011/09/22/technology/hp_leo_apotheker_...

Re: HP Names Meg Whitman President and Chief Executive Officer

#43

Post by IgorPartola »

0x12 wrote: post #36
astrodust wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Do you think if they were around they would havr helped avoid this mess?

Re: HP Names Meg Whitman President and Chief Executive Officer

#44

Post by 0x12 »

IgorPartola wrote: post #43
0x12 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Do you think if they were around they would havr helped avoid this mess?

From what I've read about them their retirement was permanent, they both had more than deserved it. So I don't think they could have avoided the mess unless they stepped in and that would be highly unlikely. Maybe a 'watchful eye' would have had some positive effect or a consulting role of sorts.

HP was a unique company and it definitely isn't the first time that such a unique company flows from the hands and brains of unique people and does not survive the transition to new management without significant damage.

The HP story does not bode well for Apple, which was even more the brainchild of some pretty unique individuals.

Steve Jobs is still around, and I really hope that Tim Cook will not embarrass Steve in the way that the HP board has fouled the HP legacy. Those guys deserved a lot better than this. Once upon a time there was the HP way. Today that's the stuff of legend.

Re: HP Names Meg Whitman President and Chief Executive Officer

#45

Post by lawnchair_larry »

mturmon wrote: post #31
mortenjorck wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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/

This is such a shame. I got a touchpad in the fire sale and they really did a decent job on that thing. I would put it ahead of android but slightly behind iOS. Although I personally don't care too much which OS I end up with, it's clear that a lot of good work went into this.

Re: HP Names Meg Whitman President and Chief Executive Officer

#46

Post by timtadh »

0x12 wrote: post #36
astrodust wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Actually for the company that Hewlett and Packard founded see Agilent. After the HP/Agilent division around 2000, Agilent took most of the early HP records. Why? Because Agilent's business lines were the original HP business lines.

http://www.home.agilent.com/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agilent_Technologies

Re: HP Names Meg Whitman President and Chief Executive Officer

#47

Post by shalmanese »

alanh wrote: post #10

Robert X Cringely quote† from 7 months back, posted earlier today by Gruber‡: > Then there’s Meg Whitman, who expected at this point to have resigned from the HP board to spend all her time running California as governor. But that didn’t happen, so now what is she to do? [...] She’ll eventually get around to hip-checking Apotheker and taking his job. † http://www.cringely.com/2011/02/why-leo-apotheker-will-be-fi... ‡…

This strikes me as an excellent demonstration of the "make as many wild ass predictions as possible until one of them hits and then have everyone think you're a visionary genius".

Re: HP Names Meg Whitman President and Chief Executive Officer

#48

Post by AllenKids »

0x12 wrote: post #44
IgorPartola wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think if they were around they would havr helped avoid this mess?

From what I've read about them their retirement was permanent, they both had more than deserved it. So I don't think they could have avoided the mess unless they stepped in and that would be highly unlikely. Maybe a 'watchful eye' would have had some positive effect or a consulting role of sorts. HP was a unique company and it definitely isn't the first time that such a unique company flows from the hands and brains…

Well if Tim Cook dare to screw up Jobs' legacy, some rabid fanboy will take him out with a suicide bomb attack.

And I'm only half joking.

Re: HP Names Meg Whitman President and Chief Executive Officer

#49

Post by 0x12 »

timtadh wrote: post #46
0x12 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Actually for the company that Hewlett and Packard founded see Agilent. After the HP/Agilent division around 2000, Agilent took most of the early HP records. Why? Because Agilent's business lines were the original HP business lines. http://www.home.agilent.com/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agilent_Technologies

Yes, and I think that Agilents future is a lot more secure than HPs at this point in time.

Agilent is basically the instrument division of the 'old' HP.

Re: HP Names Meg Whitman President and Chief Executive Officer

#50

Post by r00fus »

Element_ wrote: post #30
epistasis wrote: post #3

So, this board has recently brought in a software guy who doesn't seem a good fit for a company that does a lot of hardware, had him make a bunch of unpopular decisions, then quickly replaced him with somebody that's been on the board for quite some time, without reversing any of the previous "damage" that Apotheker is being blamed for. Apotheker appears to be the fall guy for some unpopular decisions that the board…

The article in the NYT today reported that the board fully supported the decisions he had made but didn't like the way he was communicating the changes inside and out of the company. Whether or not that is the real reason they fired him is anyones guess I suppose.

It's the only way they come out looking competent, so I guess that's what they're running with.

I don't see how Leo would go rogue... he was clearly a fall guy and he might have been ok with it.

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