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Leo Apotheker's relatively short stint as CEO of Hewlett Packard has come to end. Taking his place is Meg Whitman, the former eBay boss, who will now serve as HP's President and CEO, the company's board of directors announced. Ms. Whitman faces the monumental challenge of restoring investor faith in HP, though her appointment alone may prove a step in the right direction.
"We are fortunate to have someone of Meg Whitman’s caliber and experience step up to lead HP," said Ray Lane, who is moving from non-executive chairman to executive chairman. "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."
The move to oust Leo Apotheker was rumored for days. Under his watch, HP's stock has fallen 47 percent. HP has also come under fire for its decision to abandon webOS hardware after paying $1.2 billion acquiring Palm in 2010, for shopping its Personal Systems Group (PSG) division, and for spending $10.3 billion acquiring Autonomy.
Despite questionable moves and poor performing stock, the board refrained from taking any parting shots at Mr. Apotheker.
"We very much appreciate Léo’s efforts and his service to HP since his appointment last year. The board believes that the job of the HP CEO now requires additional attributes to successfully execute on the company’s strategy. Meg Whitman has the right operational and communication skills and leadership abilities to deliver improved execution and financial performance," Lane said.
Image Credit: flickr megwhitman2010
Comments are closed on this article
LatiosXT
September 23, 2011 at 10:27am
... They hired her?
So if those Jerry Brown ads against her were true, I don't know what to say about HP.
Holly Golightly
September 22, 2011 at 11:01pm
Gosh... Lets hope HP did not pick a Carol Bartz. Poor Yahoo... Hopefully HP makes a smart choice than they did with Leo Apotheker
Keith E. Whisman
September 22, 2011 at 6:54pm
web os was the worst decision and should have been enough for share holders to demand a new ceo. using web os for tablets was a terrible idea as android was, is, and will for the foreseeable future be the os of choice for tablets. as soon as they dropped android in favor of web os I knew it was the end and my comments on the matter can be read. Im glad to see the guy go. a fucking computer company that doesnt make and or sell computers is just insane. I dont even acknowledge ibm anymore ever since they quit making computers.
ddimick
September 22, 2011 at 10:33pm
Not acknowledging IBM because they don't manufacture consumer PCs is silly. IBM is four times larger than HP. Feel free to continue not acknowledging them, they do not care.
HP did not acquire Palm when Leo was there; that was Hurd's decision. WebOS works about as well on a tablet as Android does. That's not a compliment to either OS, by the way.
big_montana
September 22, 2011 at 7:42pm
Apotheker had nothing to do with the decision to purchase Palm, or implement WebOS on tablets (and there is nothing wrong with WebOS as a tablet os, as it is mch more robust than Android and iOS) as it was the previous CEP that made that decision. The problem with HP's tablets are that they are under powered and have crappy hardware. IBM does make computers, they are called SERVERS. So I take it that you do not acknowledge Microsoft either, or Adobe, Google, all computer companies that do not make computers.
