Rahul Sood: HP Doesn't Have Any Balls (or Arms or Legs)
Rahul Sood: HP Doesn't Have Any Balls (or Arms or Legs)
Posted 08/22/2011 at 7:00am
| by Paul Lilly
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Rahul Sood doesn't hold a grudge against HP. As a matter of fact, he "really loves HP," as he confessed in a recent blog post, and is hoping that when HP's finished reinventing itself, the OEM "comes back stronger and better than ever." Those are kind words for a company that ultimately drove Sood's Voodoo PC brand into the ground, but after witnessing HP do the same with Palm/webOS and try to duck out of the PC business altogether, one can't help but make some harsh observations.
"HP made the their move -- they won't go back on it. They think they're amputating an arm, but they are removing both legs and a pair of balls," @rahulsood posted on Twitter following HP's flurry of announcements last week.
Talk about a kick to the groin, but if Sood's right, HP won't feel it anyway. Whether you agree with him or not, Sood has certainly earned the right to speak bluntly about HP's desire to ditch PCs. The guy started off with a dream and a credit card, and turned them into Voodoo PC, a custom gaming boutique that once scored a perfect 10 in Maximum PC magazine (check out page 76). Voodoo PC turned a profit from Day 1 and was still making money when he sold it to HP more than a decade later. It took only a few years for HP to bungle its acquisition and for Sood to jump ship, a decision that didn't come easily.
Where HP goes from here is very much up in the air, and the topic of much debate (and has turned into a war of the words between HP and Dell). Rather than add more speculation at this early stage, we'll let Sood have the last word.
"I still can't believe the occurrences of last week. Wow. Talk about an epic week in technology," @rahulsood tweeted over the weekend.
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Morete
August 22, 2011 at 3:52pm
Voodoo was stagnant. It wasn't going anywhere. Sood knew it and that's why he sold. $20,000.00 for their top configured oak cabinet gaming PC? I realize that Alienware makes their cases out of cheap plastic but I mean come on, even Alienware kept their prices out of the stratosphere. Look at iBUYPOWER and CyberPower. They cater to budget as well as enthusiast PC gamers and they're still around and making nice profits. Sood was too good for that. Budget gaming PCs would of cramped his style. Boo hoo! Gamers needed an overpriced Voodoo gaming PC like a bicycle needed a stinking fish.
Number Six
August 22, 2011 at 9:14am
I agree with Rahul, and I also think HP's timing couldn't be worse. HP made the announcement just as it was detrhoned by Apple in the notebook market. It's a case of a spoiled kid not getting the position he wanted on a team and then taking his ball and going home.
What will the loss of HP mean to consumers? Probably even less quality built notebooks. In the end, we all lose.
-Six
cj100570
August 22, 2011 at 9:01am
Rahul Sood is an ass wipe! He's the last person I'd give any weight to when they speak. He allowed, no, pushed Voodoo into extinction.
blkpanthr
August 22, 2011 at 8:02am
how do you figure this was a voodoo fail? hp fail more like..
Sood's company was purchased; ie he got a whooolllleeee lot of money for it.
and a job to boot.
Neel Chauhan
August 22, 2011 at 7:30am
Why would he like a company if they took his company down. voodoo was a lot like geocities. a big company buys someone smaller just to figure out they abondoned the small company
voodooFAIL duh
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