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HP appoints Meg Whitman as CEO

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23rd Sep 2011
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Following yesterday’s speculation regarding the possible dismissal of Léo Apotheker, HP has today announced that it has fired its CEO after only 11 months in the role and hired Meg Whitman, the former eBay CEO, in his place.

In a statement regarding the change, Ray Lane, who has also been appointed as executive chairman of the board of directors, said: “We are fortunate to have someone of Meg Whitman’s calibre and experience step up to lead HP. 
“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.”
In regards to Apotheker’s dismissal, Lane adds: “The job of the HP CEO now requires additional attributes to successfully execute on the company’s strategy.” However, the appointment has been heralded as Silicon Valley’s worst kept secret following leaks of Whitman’s appointment. In a statement given yesterday, Ovum chief analyst, Carter Lusher, explained that regardless of the truth of the rumours, the damage had already been done in terms of depicting HP as a company in disarray: “These periods of turmoil at major vendors are never good for the company, the employees, and most especially the customers.”
The move comes after an eventful few years of changes for the company so far and places the stability of decisions from the board into question. Lusher adds: “That the board would be considering a change in CEO less that 10 months after Apotheker took over as CEO is a damning indictment of not just the new CEO, but also the board itself. Having approved the recent strategy changes, it seems spineless for the board just a month later to be potentially jettisoning that plan and its architect.”
Apotheker is the second CEO in two years to have been dropped with share prices plummeting as a result and HP losing almost $60 billion of market value. AccountingWEB recently reported on the company’s shock decision to exit from the PC business, which is yet to be determined as a clever business strategy or the toll of death bells. 
As a result of the recent announcements Ovum recommends that CIO and IT organisations assign a ‘risk premium’ to dealing with HP and demand that the company respond with better discounts, pricing or packaging.
[Update] In response to the announcement, analyst Mark Fabbi at Gartner stated: "Meg Whitman is certainly a viable choice that can provide some stability and leadership to HP. We can’t forget that they’re still a $130 billion company with strong or leadership positions in servers, PCs, networking and services. 
"What we’ve seen is HP’s board moving to address the shortcomings in execution we've seen over the past nine months, as well as recognising that the core company is still a vital asset.
"The most important thing to accomplish in the short term is to restore confidence with both investors and buyers, and the changes combined with their very specific comments during the call yesterday are the first steps in doing that. Clearly strong execution on their existing core business areas are critical while taking the time to figure out how their new software investments will not only grow themselves, but leverage the rest of the HP business."
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By ThornyIssues
26th Sep 2011 11:54

I just don't know .....

What has a jumped up market stall internet site manager got to offer what was once the very best and innovative hi-tech design, research and development company with groundbreaking workplace ethos on the globe? Mr Hewlet and Mr Packard, who were engineers, not bean counters, who bult the company up starting from their garages, must be spinning in their graves.  

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