HP board considering giving CEO Apotheker the boot after less than one year on the job 194
Most CEOs get a few years to execute a turnaround for their company. That might not be the case for HP CEO Leo Apotheker, as Bloomberg and AllThingsD are reporting that the HP Board of Directors is meeting and on the agenda will be discussion as to whether or not they should keep Apotheker on the company payroll. Apotheker was brought to HP less than a year ago, replacing the recently-ousted Mark Hurd and setting HP down a path of enterprise software and services. Since then, HP's stock has dropped over 40%.
The HP board is said to be considering former eBay CEO and former California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman for the job. Whitman would bring more than a decade of CEO experience to HP, and though her record at eBay is mixed (she lead the company through its IPO and explosive growth, but also greatly overpaid for Skype), it's certainly better than the failed year-long stint as SAP CEO that Apotheker brought to HP.
The moves that HP has made under Apotheker's leadership have been widely criticized by the media, consumers, and (most importantly to HP's board), investors. From spinning off or selling HP's consumer computers division to shutting down webOS device development just six weeks after the TouchPad's launch because getting to #1+ would cost too much, Apotheker's leadership has been called into question since the beginning. Of course, there's also HP's sagging earnings and plummetting stock price.
There's no telling what exactly would happen if Apotheker was removed by the board (emphasis on if - this is just a proposal before the board, but considering the stock price, they'd be foolish not to act on it), but we'll offer Whitman or whoever hypothetically replaces a hypothetically-fired Apotheker a bit of advice: undo the damage before it's too late. HP can be both consumer hardware and enterprise software. Fire back up the webOS hardware development, rehire those just laid off, apologize for the scare, and take the market by storm. Use that HP scale and power.
If anything, it's clear the investors like the idea of this rumor: HP's stock has jumped more than 7% as of this writing.
Source: Bloomberg, AllThingsD
194 Comments
YES!
I couldn't have been happier, until Meg's name popped up :( She's a dolt!
Can't be worse than LEO
Seriously, HP has a history of hiring bad CEOs. And Meg Whitman is just a rich idiot.
Remember this piece of brilliance?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEPlZYp5-Pk
No. This would be the easy way out for the douchebag. He screwed things up. Why let him off the hook? Demand for him to fix it.
janter, that's a stupid comment. You have a leader who can't lead, you fire him and find one who can. You don't 'make him fix it.' He can't. Fire him.
A true leader will make everything great again. Yes.
I understand what janter is saying, as "letting him go" will probably require a severance package in the 10's of millions of dollars, but considering he just axed a 1.2 billion dollar investment, I'd say it's worth it.
Yes please. I completely agree. If this is possible....Leo must "undo" all of this damage.
He won't undo any of the damage he did if he stays, he's too stubborn. He apparently isn't aware that HP sells the most PC's and that you can't expect to release a tablet at the same price as the ipad and have it sell very well. They needed to push the products out when they announced them, like he "promised", and they should have released the Pre 3 along with the TouchPad. He's not going to fix anything, he'll just keep making it worse. Get rid of him!
...like, how exactly can he "undo" the damage that he did?
Maybe if they could cut him to pieces and sell him for body parts, he is worth more when you "spin off" his liver, kidneys, etc., than as a whole, but they still will be few quids short on him...
...especially, that there would be no buyers for his brain, that is for sure...
Thanks for ruining everything Leo. Hey Mark, want your old job back with a seperate (hidden) expense account????
Yeah!! Now they can reverse the webOS decision now and not look like complete idiots.
Too late, they already look like complete idiots for agreeing to let Leo try to kill off WebOS after investing so much into it and then not even giving it a decent chance on the market.
Yup, its too late. The only hope is that Meg gets to keep it long enough for some hardware vendor to use it.
**** merely changing ceos this fast makes them look like idiots. means they didn't know what they were doing which doesn't instil confidence.
That's about it though, I have no confidence in HP, I think thiy are idiots! I say off with his head!
Sorry -- they already had "carnal relations with the pooch" on webOS tablets and webOS phones. They would have to price everything way below cost, bring back a ton of people they laid off, say to the world "it was our big, bad CEO that made us do this", yada, yada, yada...
Ain't gonna happen.
I don't see that happening at all. WebOS cannot compete at this point. SLow, laggy, buggy, no apps and the list goes on. To turn that around would cost a **** of a lot while the competition continue to expand.
While I agree that getting webOS hardware production is, unfortunately, out of the question at this point (the damage that has already been done is too great), you are COMPLETELY wrong with your analysis of "why". The software is NOT slow, laggy, buggy and with no apps.
Quite the contrary, webOS 3.1 is very useable, does not have a lot of bugs (missing functionality, but not really buggy) and actually has a good number of apps. The software is certainly competitive against Android's Honeycomb. Not sure what made you so jaded, but the software is truly, very good and with continued support and development, could easily over-take Android on tablets (in the current market).
3.1? What? Here I'm stuck on 3.0.2...
NDA says I can't talk about the next version but I CAN tell you that it most certainly isn't 3.1.
Considering how many Touchpads have been released at this point, with a LOT of positive response from those who purchased it, there is a good chance here for things to get turned around for device publication, as long as webOS updates for the Touchpad are pushed out and provide the needed hardware acceleration.
1 million+ devices out there is a fair number to "seed the market" and generate interest in another year for an upgraded version.
I don't think that will happen. Leo's problem with the board is not the direction but execution. The board kicked out Mark so they can change the direction where Mark wants to go. If they brought back Mark, then I see that could change for WebOS.
Huh? The board kicked out Hurd because of a **** scandal. I may have missed it, but I was under the impression that Hurd-as-CEO was considered a success.
not exactly true. The reality is the problems psg had with severly declining profits started well before apotheker got their. As selling computers just became less profitable in the wake of tablets and netbooks and people not buying desktops. Not to mention declining corporate spending on computers grinded to a halt when the stock market crashed.
But there is an idea that HP was doing great, then hired Leo, and he alone ruined them. The reality is they weren't doing good, and he either couldn't right the ship or made it worse depending on you're perspective. But what you see now was predicted many many years ago when people said, "People just aren't buying desktops. HP has to do something." Not to mention you've got guys like jobs screaming "post pc era."
"(...) people said, 'People just aren't buying desktops. HP has to do something.'"
I'd say that committing fully to a platform like webOS, that used to had an enormous potential to become both the best mobile consumer platform, AND enterprise platform, would be a nice "something" to do, on HP's part. So sorry they never did..
"Not to mention you've got guys like jobs screaming 'post pc era.'"
Well, not to mention the hundreds of millions of users (and growing explosively), consumers and businesses alike, singing the same song with Jobs... And I can't blame them, if likes of Motorola Atrix are able and capable of working as a smartphone, and a terminal client at work, and a professional netbook, with remote desktop client and all, AND also as my entertainment center - and all just depending on different docks, well, why should your average Joe still need a PC?
Seriously, guys, you censor the word S-E-X? Gimme a **** break.
In my head, I'm reading that as Gimme a sexing break.
i was thinking something similar. minus the "ing". I do find it funny that they try to control the mass of swearing on the internet under the guise of it being family. sorry it's the internet. Nothing is family that's not on the disney website. like nobody is going to **** know what the **** stars mean when i write you write curse words.
It's unfortunate for webOS fans - but I agree. I doubt there would be a significant change in direction as far as webOS goes given Leo was no doubt hired by the board to implement this strategy change. Unless the board is suddenly having a change of heart based on the market's reaction...
Leo has totally botched the change of strategy that the board envisioned. It's completely inept to announce a new strategy without announcing a fleshed out plan for how you are going to wind-down the old strategy. In this case, the wind-down of webOS HW, the licensing/sale of webOS SW, and the spinoff/sale of PSG. Having no clear plan in place means HP customers, shareholders, employees, suppliers all have fear/uncertainty/doubt regarding HP's direction. HP's stock price has dropped a lot as a result. The transition plan and associated communications are all the CEO's responsibility. That is why Leo will get sacked.
...yep, it is so-called "all important details" that make a world of difference, between a success and a failure, and not some smokey "visions" of the "future of interconnected devices and services" they fed us for the last year.
That is why people like Jobs (love or hate him, all the same) are able to execute in tech world, knowing their stuff from the bare iron up to the software development & evangelization levels, and corporate suits/office administrators like HP's "leadership", will fail.
So unfortunate.
That's clearly not true -- if the change in direction were cooked in, they wouldn't have released the TouchPad to begin with. Nope, this is all Leo's doing. And the fact that he makes the announcement and the board meets a month later to nuke him, well, that's very fast for a company as big as HP.
Hope his golden parachute consists solely of a $99 Touchpad.
Yeah, like the webOS GBU employees getting laid off.
No, let the Touchpads go to consumers. Give him a refurbished iPaq...
Give Leo a Betamax and some Kleenix along with it.
See ya...wouldn't wanna be ya!
No, let the Touchpads go to customers! Give him a refurbished iPaq
Too good for him.....give him an iPad instead.
Of course, the **** NOT!. This would be just one device more that would be greatly missed by some interested developers.
There are other, more meaningful things they could buy him as a farewell gift. Maybe a pair of those nice Nokia Rubber Boots?
Better yet, let him stand in line an hour and a half before the sale starts up at HP headquarters and battle it out with his (former) employees for one. If he survives the beat-down he'll likely recieve, that is.
I would hope an employee would test out the gorilla glass on his head.
HA
The only surprise is that this wasn't announced a month ago.
I wonder what Apotheker's golden parachute will be.
Precisely. He'll be awarded a Treo Pro, some toner, a ream of paper and a briefcase full of large-bill euro's.
too little, too late for PSG? we shall see....
On a serious note, it is disgusting the golden-parachutes that these CEOs get for failing miserably.
Let's kick him out of a plane with his golden parachute or sumptin', tss tss
Come on, it's Chip Chiperson
Since we was getting $53 million for the first three years, I'd assume a number in the $20 million range.
http://money.cnn.com/2011/09/21/technology/hp_stock_apotheker/index.htm?...
please, please let this be true! It won't change anything for webOS, but HP needs to be rid of this idiot. He didn't act alone, but he was the idiot-in-chief!
...yep, the very basic justice has to be done...
Now, if Meg Whitman brings back Palm and webOS . . .
Forget Meg Whitman, I say Todd Bradley needs to get in there. webOS has the best chance with him anyway (well, him and Jon Rubinstein, but we all know how things worked out with Rubi).
ya F**k meg.. Putting Todd Bradley as CEO would raise stock, since people would have confidence that he would bring back the hardware side of HP (compuets and WebOS), since that is his bread and butter at HP..
P.S. the board needs to be fired.. they are the ones who kicked out Hurd and hired Leo instead of Todd in the first place.
If any Guy can do it, it's Meg.
I love Leo. Although he undeniably sent HP spiraling into oblivion, he is responsible for getting me a Touchpad at an amazing price.. Good job Leo, you will be missed.
haha, yeah, Leo's idiocy brought us 2 things: the $99 touchpad, and ~1,000,000 webOS users. i think that's a great legacy and a good time to step down.
I don't think he did that on purpose or with good intentions.
...
.-.. --- .-.. .-- ..- - ..--..
...not to mention gutted webOS, in the process of achieving these questionable "goodies"
The sad thing is, if they would have priced these tablets correctly in the first place ($300 and $400 instead of $500 and $600), I think it would be a different situation. eBay has shown people's willingness to buy up these tablets at those prices. It would have been a whole different ball-game if they wouldn't have been so arrogant as to think they could go head-to-head with Apple with specs from Apple's first generation product.
Again, the number and magnitude of the mistakes made by HP with regard to webOS is mind-boggling.
"eBay has shown people's willingness to buy up these tablets at those prices."
..not to mention, they are buying them for that price REGARDLESS webOS being in all probability dead, and in best case, on the sidetracks AGAIN.
doesnt mean devices would be revived though.
wasnt the board involved in these decisions? you would think they had to know he wanted to get out of the pc business.
Well, there's a zero chance as things exist with him as CEO. With a new CEO, there's a chance the PC Business stays.
There was so much talk on PreCentral and other places about HP having these great enterprise channels and being able to move 100 million computers. You'd have to think that switching to software and starting from nearly scratch and giving up this ginormous business was going to get some push back from the board.
What if McDonalds tomorrow announced that they were going to stop making food and instead manufacture toys because they've put a lot of those in Happy Meals. It's a head-scratcher even if they go and buy Hasbro.
Nothing needs to be revived.
Now is the time to start anew.
This is the second chance webOS needed.
Perhaps the new management team can bring back all those good loyal folks that were let go too.
Heck, make Todd Bradley the new CEO too.
They should realize that month ago! I say kill it with fire! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCbfMkh940Q
Still have to think a faction of the board did stand behind Leo with the software shift, why else would they have hired a software guy in the first place?
You want answers ?
They wanted someone to counter Larry Ellison. And they found this JOKER from Germany.
By God, I hope so. I don't think I have ever wanted to punch someone I have never met soooo much! Adios, Apothesucker!
Good riddance, Leo! Thank you very little for all the damage you did to the WebOS platform and HP in general.
They wait until he completely destroys HP to even consider it? Time to see if these people have any common sense.
Mark Hurd should come back like Steve Jobs did.
**** let Steve run it.
The stock would go up 25% if they fire him...Immediately! An interim CEO can do a better job....Leo is a f'ing idiot. He knows nothing about an "electronics" company.
Since a lemur with third-stage syphilis could have done a better job of guiding HP through the past several months by simply lying in bed with a fever, it makes sense to me.
Plus, lets face facts, VERY little that Leo has done is so far down the path that it can't be UN done yet.
How do you "undo" a million tablets that you can even pricematch the marked up eBay versions? Or developers already moved on elsewhere?
It's over. His staying or leaving doesn't change WebOS being a money sink.
That poor Lemur! I think there's a children's book here.
While I'd be happy to see this happen if for no other reason than "karma is a b*tch", it won't save webOS - not with the layoffs still going on.
Great news. Not everyone at the top at HP is brain-dead. If they act quickly maybe the best at HP won't leave in droves!
Damage is already irrevocably done. Autonomy got the vast majority of cash onhand. Flooding the market with firesale devices ensures they cannot reenter.
Leo will just cash out for millions and land elsewhere.
Actually flooding the market with firesale devices creates a strong userbase and demand for more features and better products.
Agreed, and as I said in a previous comment on this article, eBay proved that people are willing to pay more than the fire-sale prices for these tablets.
Wrong. Flooding the market with firesale devices creates a userbase loyal only to cut-rate devices, with no demand for anything else since they only bought it to be a cheap web browser/eReader/etc.
The $200-300 range these go for on eBay is not only a price point at which a good number aren't selling, but also unsustainable for any manufacturer wishing to make a profit.
Game over.
disagree, a lot of people are still waiting on the next firesale.. which is coming. getting rid of ol leo is a fine idea. Hurd screwed the pooch but nothing that cant be fixed. is he ideal? possibly, as to the comments about the board, your right the board had to have this idea in the first place, they just did not realize or did not care what the investors thought.
my bet, they never asked the investors for any input. its telling that hp stocks rose on this rumor . which for webos is at least a stay of execution for a few more weeks. give him his golden handshake, and lets do this HP.
Exactly. more and more "new" users now know what a TouchPad is all about. So, yes. Bring it on.
Yeah, and Apple flooding the market with iPads ensure they can't reenter with iPad2.
Oh, wait...
Might be the worst analogy you could've offered.
Apple doesn't flood the market with iPads. They sell almost every unit they can make to meet high demand at a high price point that people gladly pay and that makes them a hefty profit on each unit. Because of that high demand and high user satisfaction, they can keep doing it over and over again with each year's model. Apple doesn't "reenter" the market. They are the market.
HP created artificial demand by marking down their product 80 percent. While they sold every unit, it's at a price point costing them untold millions. As for demand and market value...to put it in perspective, USED iPad ONE models still easily sell for significantly more than comparable NEW UNWRAPPED HP Touchpads (supposedly competition for iPad 2) even marked up on eBay.
Actually flooding the market with firesale devices means they have a user base now. Not a great user base, but a user base.
Honestly I think the best thing for them to do is sell webOS or at least get into a partnership with a well known good hardware manufacturer. HTC, Samsung, LG, Nokia, etc.
While waiting for that to be figured out... release the Pre3s already made for fire sale prices. Then here's the clever part. Make MORE Pre3s and Touchpads, but small limited runs. Release these monthly at fire sale prices, but slowly. Like 1-5,000 a month so people will remember it.
I'm with you on some aspects but they need to move quickly and just surprise people with more stock. Just enough for Black Friday and then fire it up for the late shoppers. The turn of the new year bring out specs for TP2.
Wow....seriously?
Limited runs cost more to manufacturer. Then, you want to sell them for less so they keep racking up millions more losses on their balance sheets?
Meanwhile, the market moves on with phone and tablet hardware that smokes these devices and actually sells at a sustainable, profitable price point.
Good riddance to bad rubbish. Unfortunately it is too late for Palm :(
Bradley would make an awesome CEO
Yes. Todd Bradley has my vote too.
Well it's about time, there has been nothing but negativity coming from Leo, he acted like he needed to settle the score-wonder if there is any history between him and palm. Whatever the case, I wish him gone, I own several printers and pcs with the hp log and every time I see it I think how this man brought this company down. I've seriously considered covering the logos with a sticky. I don't know if this is good for webOS (I hope so) or not but this man needs to go regardless.
Time to get rid of this steaming **** .. let him go ruin someone else's business with his empty promises and almost total lack of delivery.
The big question is... what/who is next and what does it mean for HP and WebOS?
Yeah, he should go to Apple and transform them to software only company :D
"Most CEOs get a few years to execute a turnaround for their company."
I think it's fair to say that Apotheker executed a turnaround for HP in FAR LESS than a year.
"I think it's fair to say that Apotheker executed HP in FAR LESS than a year."
Fixed that for you.
I think he meant by turnaround is turn it around into oblivion.
HP was actually slowly doing pretty well with Mark.
Well it's about time, there has been nothing but negativity coming from Leo, he acted like he needed to settle the score-wonder if there is any history between him and palm. Whatever the case, I wish him gone, I own several printers and pcs with the hp log and every time I see it I think how this man brought this company down. I've seriously considered covering the logos with a sticky. I don't know if this is good for webOS (I hope so) or not but this man needs to go regardless. Would very nice if all those fired employees were there to see him being fired.
Can we fire the board while you are at it? These guys have no clue what they are doing.
They should bring Hurd back, Whitman's not a hardware person so it's unlikely she'd bring webOS hardware back.
Firing Apotheker would be the only smart move HP has made this year.
The touchpad should have never been released at all. It was a complete waste of money to release such a bad product. Did they think consumers wouldn't realize how slow and buggy it is.
I would say its more an unfinished product....if they had priced more logically...based on that fact...(wishing I had a time machine)
Ahh, what? Have you actually USED one? For any length of time, that wasn't a demo device? The TouchPad is really a quality product. With webOS 3.1 on it, it's actually a very good, very competitive product. Well, was competitive. But the point stands, you have no clue what you're talking about. I've been using a TouchPad for a month and a half now and have been able to completely replace my laptop for light-use applications around the house (still have a desktop of course).
I just don't understand people that think it is so bad.
Agreed. This baby now rocks after the OTA 3.02 update.
So, I say....bring us a new CEO + management team + TouchPad 2 + TouchPad Go, TouchPad Go2 + Pre3, Pre4...heck even the webOS wristWatch and more.
LOL, Yessss!!!!
Where did you get webOS 3.1?
I love it...just think it was priced poorly...
and miss my gesture area...
I have 2, I don't find it buggy, nor do I find it slow.
I don't find it buggy, but it defineatly is slow at times.
Best news I've heard lately in the webOS world.
webOS is dead..Long live webOS... the webOS is dead... still dead.... Yup webOS is officially screwed. Killing devices...Changing CEO's if this aint smart phone purgatory I do not know what is.
Two words: About Time.
And then some more words: Unfortunately those guys land always on their feet, no matter how hard the swift kick in the butt might be.
So when he's off - if that's going to happen - he just strolls down the road and enters the next company's door.
Two more words if I may: Todd Bradley
Meg Whitman's all software. They hired apotheker because he was a software guy, if they're going to get rid of him it's because he's a software guy that just happened to be a buffoon. Hiring Whitman won't bring back webOS. Giving the position to Todd Bradley though would probably be the best bet for webOS' survival, but seems that likelihood is slim.
A software background isn't an automatic kiss of death to hardware companies, but bringing an idiot in who doesn't understand the products and the strengths of the company IS what has caused the problems.
Yes...Leo should go...but honestly does HP think there are only 10 capable CEOs in the world? Do they all hop from company to company? Whitman...really? Time to promote from within folks...
Apotheker gets the Boot, so HP can reboot.
Crazy, but the right thing. I'm not sure about Whitman. They need to steal someone from IBM or Apple.
Hi all, I have a few thoughts on all of this, I had a chance to think about it while I was dancing in the streeets in front of my house!
Leo ran HP into the ground, he took a $1.2 Billion investment in webOS added another $300 to $400 million to the total then canceled all webOS products...but is keeping webOS...so webOS has no products for sale using it, no one wants to license it and what the board of directors was going to let him write of over 1 1/2 BILLION $?
He was the one who said webOS would be installed on all computers and printers, he stated that HP would write apps for webOS pay firms to port their apps to webOS and even supply the manpower to do so....
As soon as he canceled webOS products without trying another approach to webOS I knew his days here numbered...Wall street must be dancing in the streets HP lost almost 1/2 it's value since the ill advised decision to sell HP's computer division, OH wait they may keep it, Oh wait they may spin it off...the real thing spinning was Leo's wheels!
I hope they pay off his golden parachute in broken TouchPads.
Take care,
Jay
Great read jay. Leo quit. Lost his mojo or whatever. He didn't understand nor realize the true potential behind webOS. Bringing in a new CEO that understands all that webOS goodness has to offer (such as Todd Bradley) will be awesome.
Hi all,
Well we all saw this coming weeks ago.....
Thank goodness, Leo don't let the door hit you on the way out and Hasta La vista baby!
Take care,
Jay
Great bit of news Derek. I love the advise....how wonderful that would be.
1. Fire Leo
2. Apologise to Mark Hurd
3. Hire Mark Hurd
4. Stop PSG / webOS demise
it would be nice, but wouldnt happen, he happy with oracle :(
Anyone can be bought for the right price...
Can't believe what I'm reading here. I'm no Leo lover and am pissed to **** about how webOS has been treated but I'm also a shareholder and it's one thing for an individual to make himself and the company look bad with a controversial business decision, it's a whole other thing for the company to expose how rotten it is to the core time and again.
If they sack Leo that stock price goes down below $20 and never comes back. Let's be real: they f***ed up on the webOS execution but HP is too big and the market has been yelling for it to spin off either its PC and/or Imaging business forever.
As it stands: I don't WANT HP to hold the rights to webOS because all the smart people left or were sacked during the Carly years. I daresay even if St. Jobs himself came in to replace Leo he'd probably do a Newton on webOS devices (while developing something in secret that's decades ahead to debut when it's good and ready!).
And someone actually says that Hurd should have done a Jobs by coming back??!! Nearly fell out of my seat at that one. For the record, Hurd is an axe-man and during his watch the Palm GBU layoff doesn't even remotely compare to the bloody carnage.
Firing Leo gets a stock bump, not a slide. You'll see.
Why do you think your stock has been going down in the first place?
I've give you the stock bump. But Leo's just a symptom of the overall cancer. My stock has been going down since the company moved away from having engineer types (RIP Lew Platt) lead to hiring these career CEOs with little vision and less conscience.
If they give Leo the axe, they better replace him with a superstar or it's same old all over again. Heck, forget the superstar - I'd even settle for someone who realizes that if you can't out-cool Apple, you can at least make and sell SOLID products, which is what HP used to do. Somewhere there's a LaserJet 4 that's still humming.
Well this is reason enough to party :) Time for another Palm Blog app promo code to be announced in honor of someone actually considering this idea!
Techiedude
I guess they've been reading my posts at Twitter.
How many times do you guys want Palm to die? It is the comedic death that just keeps on giving. Please, HP… Please restart WebOS so the cycle can start all over again. Feed the crazies with false hope, then watch Palm/WebOS be roadkill to a whole new generation of superior products. Let's watch that HP scale at work again, as they fail to find a carrier that will touch them, or a retailer that will pre-pay for products.
I know it is not what people want to hear, but shuttering Palm was the only smart thing Leo did. I swear, some of you think all HP should care about is Palm. They have much bigger issues on their hands. HP was a bad fit for Palm before. It is downright tragic now.
Great words. they'll fall on deaf ears, but you tried.
..so, you do not think that turning around PC hardware company into a mobile hardware company PLUS SaaS/Services company, focused along the best (if underdeveloped) mobile OS out there, being perfect match to integrate with SaaS models makes any sense, in the LONG RUN.
Yep, we got your point very well, thanks.
Now, you can get back to your spreadsheets and short-term-only (VERY short term, like TODAY ONLY) arithmetic, thank you very much.
Regardless of the future direction under a new CEO, it's clear that current investors have utterly lost confidence in HP - and that's made HP incredibly vulnerable.
We know the mistakes: The confusing messaging, the willingness to bleed money without expressing a coherent strategy, purchasing companies at ridiculous prices, announcing a PC spinoff well before they were ready to act...
All of these things cause a stock drop, and what would that ultimately do? Attract buyers. What would the buyers do? Rip apart HP.
Leo should probably go, if the HP board wants to see HP remain HP.
Well, investors lost confidence in HP under the current regime led by Leo. perhaps the new CEO along with a new management team can turn things around enough to instill and bolster that confidence in webOS like never seen before. Now is the time to create the ground swell that will make revive webOS with fresh new products. Yes webOS Can!
Another day, another "let's stir up the spirits of the WebOS troops" article from Precentral.
Hah, I can see Leo now... trying to save his job...
"but guys, hey, I just decided to take a $2+ Billion loss for the company all at once, instead of just making meager profits over the next several years...."
$2+ billion? You mean Palm's acquisition + to-date webOS development costs @HP? That is just a spare change, comparing to the market value loss of 1/5 of the company shares price in a single glorious "earning call" day...
Even if Mark Hurd would have stayed things might not have been any different. I doubt much about the webOS project changed when Leo took over. "We didn't buy webOS to get into the smartphone business..." remember?
I would be tickled to death if within the next month Leo is shown the door (send Ruby packing too, pls), bring in a new guy and announce a hardware partnership with HTC for webOS.
But of course, that's not going to happen. webOS will still be dead and I'll be decided with Mango phone I'm going to buy.
Cue Green Day...
I wonder if hiring Meg Whitman will be more of the same. Why can't they promote from within?
One name will do it: Todd Bradley
HPQ stock price:
$24.77 +2.30 (10.24%)
Real-time: 12:53PM EDT
leo needs to go!!! best news I've heard all year!!!
Well, after $99 for a Touchpad
Dead company is dead, and Leo killed it.
Hope it happens. Good riddance Leo you jack***
Sad thing is, he'll still probably get a golden parachute. Doubtful that his replacement would be able to undo all of Leo's horrible decisions though. So sad.
Let's hope HP deliver it on time with this news.
This was about 1 year too long in the making. Stupid dumbass!!
It's too late, only Jason can be killed as many times as WebOS and come back to life.
Meg is a good choice to lead.
Nice #1+ shot Derek!
Hi, Glenn!