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Hewlett-Packard Plans to Break in Two

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Re: Hewlett-Packard Plans to Break in Two

#101

Post by hackuser »

kqland wrote: post #57
adventured wrote: post #42

It really bothers me what has been been done to HP as an engine of innovation and product development. It's extremely similar to what the leadership at IBM has done to that company the last ~15 years. I feel like the destiny for both of these companies is to slowly be split into ever smaller pieces until half of those pieces are eventually acquired by other US or Chinese firms for dirt cheap (and nothing against Chin…

And that's why we must understand that at executive level gender does not matter. What matters is strategy and ability to execute. When HP announced "Meg Whitman" as CEO everyone was so voraciously attacking how HP is is being in bad condition because of male CEOs. Being male does not matter. Whitman has failed tremendously. Not only HP has laid off thousands of people from US ( some of them I knew personally very we…

> Sorry if this came as too bold but I could not resist myself.

No need to apologize, and the problem isn't boldness but what I think is a lack of factual basis and a bit of a rant:

1) I haven't seen anyone, including feminists, claim that female CEOs are better and certainly not that they are necessarily good managers (I'm sure you can find someone to back any statement, but it's certainly a very small minority).

2) You imply Whitman was chosen to run HP because of her gender Do you have evidence? At least she has a very impressive resume and is fully qualified. EDIT: And you imply that people with the opinion in #1 caused that to happen; it's very hard to believe that is true or that they even have the influence to affect the choice of HP's CEO.

3) The necessary assumptions behind #1 and #2 make your statement read as if you believe there is some sort of conspiracy favoring women in tech and you are pushing against it. I'm not saying you believe that, but the argument looks that way.

If there is a conspiracy to promote women in tech, it is doing very poorly.

I agree with this statement: Cultural changes don't happen overnight.

Re: Hewlett-Packard Plans to Break in Two

#102

Post by hackuser »

bitwize wrote: post #67
kqland wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And that's why we must understand that at executive level gender does not matter. What matters is strategy and ability to execute. When HP announced "Meg Whitman" as CEO everyone was so voraciously attacking how HP is is being in bad condition because of male CEOs. Being male does not matter. Whitman has failed tremendously. Not only HP has laid off thousands of people from US ( some of them I knew personally very we…

An example from earlier in HP's history: When Carly Fiorina was ousted from the company she wrote a book all about how she was despised at HP for being a woman in charge of a major engineering firm. But being a woman had nothing to do with it; being an idiot who didn't understand engineering culture and who damn well nearly broke the company had everything to do with it. Steve Ballmer was ousted from Microsoft for si…

> But being a woman had nothing to do with it

I don't know the facts of Fiorina's experience but from what I understand discrimination against women in tech is well-documented and very widespread today. It would be surprising if Fiorina were not subject to it back when she ran HP, from 1999 to 2005.

Re: Hewlett-Packard Plans to Break in Two

#103

Post by robomartin »

I have been an HP customer for about 30 years. I have purchased test instruments, calculators, printers and computers from the company. Some of these products are still with me. For example, my collection of HP calculators starting with several HP-41's up to the current HP Prime. Even a 30 year old HP-41 works and feels as when it was new. Also a range of digital voltmeters, signal generators and scopes. With minor maintenance (replace dried electrolytic caps) good as new.

HP used to stand for uncompromising quality. At least that was the theory. I've owned a range of HP printers, tarting with the original LaserJet, up to the LaserJet IV and a pile of ink jets.

As I said, I also owned a range of computers, mostly a pile of laptops and probably one desktop (the only factory assembled desktop I have ever purchased).

After a while I think I was buying HP out of habit. I say this because their quality has consistently disappointed for the last, say, 15 to 20 years. They went from, to borrow from Mercedes, "The best or nothing" to seemingly building some of the worst crap out there.

Their calculators went from superb to crappy displays and even crappier keyboards. Their printers might work OK but the software and drivers have been horrific for years. On the computer front, I used to buy laptops by the dozen for my business but stopped because of simultaneus failures after N years of use. In contrast, products from companies like Acer and Asus keep on ticking through thick and thin.

To address the split. I hope this means returning to some of HP's roots when it comes to design, quality and superior performance. If that isn't one of the objectives they are going from one "me too" company to multiple "me too" companies. Next year we are already planning to toss out some of our HP printers and laptops in favor of other brands. They no longer stand for what, ultimately, were the reasons to remain loyal customers.

Re: Hewlett-Packard Plans to Break in Two

#104

Post by pinaceae »

gergles wrote: post #7

Relevant parts of the article, since it's paywalled: > Hewlett-Packard Co. HPQ +2.00% plans to break in two, separating its personal-computer and printer businesses from its corporate hardware and services operations, according to people familiar with the matter. > The company plans to announce the move as early as Monday, the people said. It is expected to be effected as a tax-free distribution of shares to the comp…

so they bought EDS, turned HP into IBM services (cheap, outsourced shit), and now they spin it off again. makes sense, EDS employees still have their old personnel numbers. plus they never consolidated their ERP systems.

the full blown write-off of the 11bn of autonomy is in there as well.

Re: Hewlett-Packard Plans to Break in Two

#105

Post by jordanthoms »

whyenot wrote: post #37
ben1040 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same, but also hoping they'll call the corporate hardware/services company "DEC."

Sounds good. Then Agilent can change its name to HP and all will be right with the universe :)

Only if they start making calculators again!

Re: Hewlett-Packard Plans to Break in Two

#106

Post by sudowhodoido »

Thrymr wrote: post #91
sudowhodoido wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Horrible calculators despite a major following. I wouldn't buy too much into the HP calculator love. I myself was a follower and had an HP 50G (Nice 205MHz ARM RPL machine, successor of the HP48 series). Was totally unusable without the manual which was in PDF format only so I'd have to sit at the computer anyway. I couldn't print it out because the three volumes were ~2000 pages. Plus the thing was so damn obtuse an…

Agreed regarding the graphing RPL models, but the scientific RPN calculators are pretty solid. The 12C financial calculator is more like those. The scientific equivalent, the 15C, is no longer in production, but the current 35S isn't bad for cranking out calculations. The tactile feedback sure beats hitting a touch screen phone.

The 35S is buggy as hell, poorly designed, the battery lasts too little time and the keys break easily. I owned one and regretted the purchase (I went through an "own every calculator phase")

This is the best thing on the market at the moment in the same form factor: http://www.edu.casio.com/products/Calculators_%26_Dictionari...

If you want programmable then there's (but you have to import it): http://www.casio-intl.com/asia-mea/en/calc/scientific/progra...

TI89 for me though.

Re: Hewlett-Packard Plans to Break in Two

#107

Post by godzilla82 »

pinaceae wrote: post #104
gergles wrote: post #7

Relevant parts of the article, since it's paywalled: > Hewlett-Packard Co. HPQ +2.00% plans to break in two, separating its personal-computer and printer businesses from its corporate hardware and services operations, according to people familiar with the matter. > The company plans to announce the move as early as Monday, the people said. It is expected to be effected as a tax-free distribution of shares to the comp…

so they bought EDS, turned HP into IBM services (cheap, outsourced shit), and now they spin it off again. makes sense, EDS employees still have their old personnel numbers. plus they never consolidated their ERP systems. the full blown write-off of the 11bn of autonomy is in there as well.

Apart from the services business that HP inherited from EDS, it also has the server business, that would now go to the HP services unit.

Re: Hewlett-Packard Plans to Break in Two

#109

Post by ci5er »

joshmn wrote: post #50
pera wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The return of Compaq and DEC? That would be lovely!

My father worked for DEC; when it got bought out by Compaq, he worked for Compaq; when that got bought out by HP, he worked for HP (and still does). He's an enterprise-level field-service tech. He's the go-to guy for most HPs largest clients in Minnesota (UHG, USPS, 3M, UMN all come to mind), and in the Upper-Midwest. He's always said that DEC did the most incredible stuff out of all the generations of hardware he's…

I was really sad to see DEC SRC and WRL go the way of the dodo. Really good stuff. Microsoft picked up a lot of the folks, but, still...

Re: Hewlett-Packard Plans to Break in Two

#110

Post by randomafrican »

crapshoot101 wrote: post #19

The most amazing thing for me of the piece is the realization that HP still had $110B+ in revenue last year - its a useful reminder to us (put myself squarely in this category) of some of the behemoths in the valley that get short shift at times in the "Silicon Valley" PR ecosystem. There's apparently some interesting research still going in HP labs - one smart friend moved out here to work on Memristors with them (o…

Small margins and low growth though.

And many would argue that it'd be hard to do better.

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