"Ronald Reagan was an actor," "He was a pretty good president. OK?"

September 23, 2011 5:37 PM

Meg Whitman: Excerpts from new HP CEO's first talk with investors. Hewlett-Packard stock hits 6-year low on Whitman's first full day. 'The dip, which hit the lowest price since May 2005, reflected investors' continued doubts about Whitman's fitness to run the global computing giant.'

'In a conference call Thursday with Whitman and HP board chairman Raymond J. Lane, investors repeatedly asked if HP's board had hired Whitman too hastily.

He insisted that HP had considered all of its options, and that Whitman was the best.

But those concerns came up again in a TV interview on Friday, in which a CNBC anchor asked Lane if Whitman's experience as the chief executive of EBay Inc., a Web company, qualified her to head a company that makes computers.

"Ronald Reagan was an actor," Lane replied. "He was a pretty good president. OK?"'

'Whitman replaced former Chief Executive Leo Apotheker after an 11-month tenure that culminated in the announcement of major changes to HP -- including the potential spinoff of its huge PC business, and the $10 billion purchase of Autonomy Corp., a British business software-maker.

But those decisions turned out to be the board's strategy, not Apotheker's. So investors have wondered, will Whitman continue on the same path, or try to move the company toward her own vision?

"From what I know now, from where I sit, these seem like smart decisions," Whitman said in the TV interview. "I'm not just taking the playbook and, you know, turning to chapter one, line seven. But I feel comfortable with the strategic direction of the company."'

posted by VikingSword (64 comments total)

I'm just sitting back waiting for the news to break that everyone in HP's board is shorting its stock.
posted by mullingitover at 5:52 PM on September 23, 2011 [12 favorites]

Is Skype back on the market?
posted by Trurl at 5:54 PM on September 23, 2011 [1 favorite]

"Ronald Reagan was an actor," Lane replied. "He was a pretty good president. OK?"'

I lol'd. If Whitman does to HP's finances what Reagan did for the United States', there will be a lot of engineers hitting the unemployment lines.
posted by mullingitover at 5:59 PM on September 23, 2011 [4 favorites]

This is sad. Give Meg a chance, people! I'm curious to see what she can do without Jack Whit.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 5:59 PM on September 23, 2011 [11 favorites]

I think the way we have to rebuild the confidence of investors, the confidence of employees, is we have to execute. We have to say what we’re going to do. We have to mean it, and we have to deliver the results. In the end, the only thing that will rebuild confidence in this company is delivering the results, and that's what I intend to do.

I'm already behind the ball, and I've got nothing. FTFY.
posted by phaedon at 6:01 PM on September 23, 2011

No. No he wasn't.
posted by symbioid at 6:10 PM on September 23, 2011 [12 favorites]

It's fairly obvious it's HP's board that needs to get thrown out. Usually in cases like these, some activist shareholders get together to shake up the board. Whether it will be sucessful or not, this is clearly what HP needs. I suspect it isn't happening because smarter investors see HP as a sinking ship, with insufficient upside to direct these efforts. There's no point in saving what's bound to be the next Sun Microsystems or SGI.
posted by amuseDetachment at 6:17 PM on September 23, 2011 [4 favorites]

Wow, HP is just a continual parade of fail these days. The forth CEO in a little over a year? The board should be fired for malpractice.
posted by octothorpe at 6:19 PM on September 23, 2011 [6 favorites]

Wasn't Whitman the brain trust behind the demonic sheep ad in the CA race? Phone being weird, so I'm failing at doing multiple tabs, but every time I hear her name, I think demonic sheep.
posted by dejah420 at 6:20 PM on September 23, 2011

What, because HP didn't lose enough market traction under Carly Fiorina?
posted by lekvar at 6:21 PM on September 23, 2011

dejah420, no, that was the other female HP CEO, Carly.
posted by MikeKD at 6:21 PM on September 23, 2011

Oh jesus christ, I was reading in the NY Times business section the other day about how hiring her would be a big mistake, and they went and did exactly that.

I have no clue how this woman is let anywhere near handling a Fortune 500 after the mistakes she did at E - "a monkey could drive this train" - bay.
posted by wcfields at 6:25 PM on September 23, 2011 [1 favorite]

In the 12 years since Lewis Platt retired, HP has had a CEO who worked at HP prior to their CEO-ship for a total of 3 months (the 2 interim CEOs, Wayman and Lesjak).

Relevant: Searching for a Corporate Savior: The Irrational Quest for Charismatic CEOs
posted by milkrate at 6:33 PM on September 23, 2011 [6 favorites]

Now HP can auction off all of its assets!
posted by spitbull at 6:34 PM on September 23, 2011 [11 favorites]

So Meg Whitman was a member of the board that hired Apotheker in the first place and then (shortly later) shitcanned him, that oversaw the purchase and (shortly later) shutdown of Palm, and now she's running the show? The shareholders should revolt.

I look at HP and it seems like it's become a target for looting by failed executives. Now it's Whitman's turn.
posted by adamrice at 6:40 PM on September 23, 2011 [4 favorites]

Cycle of failure, burn the furniture to pump up the stock price for a bit, insiders cash out, CEO gets bonus, CEO moves on, repeat.
posted by Ad hominem at 6:44 PM on September 23, 2011 [3 favorites]

Apotheker to Take Home $25 Million in Severance From HP

Here’s how HP’s stock did under his leadership. Other than setting fire to the company’s campus, I’m not sure how [Apotheker] could have done worse.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 6:51 PM on September 23, 2011 [3 favorites]

I just want to drop in and say that if you ever find yourself with HP as your customer in a service enviroment you're basically toiling for Pure Evil.
posted by Cyrano at 7:02 PM on September 23, 2011 [1 favorite]

Having missed out on the California 'stepping stone', perhaps she's keeping a high profile to stay in view for a run in 2016? HP is so far down now, there is a pretty good chance that there can be a turn-around over the next couple of years. She could then run a presidential campaign to 'turn this country around!' ...
posted by woodblock100 at 7:20 PM on September 23, 2011

I'm curious to see what she can do without Jack Whit.

“He looks like Zorro on doughnuts." - Noel Gallagher
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 7:33 PM on September 23, 2011 [4 favorites]

No, replacing a CEO after 11 months doesn't inspire confidence, HP may well have had no other choice. For the past 6 months the buy side and sell side alike have been losing confidence and patience. Given the poor financial performance over the last two quarters, the loss of credibility with the Street, and several dubious decisions (the purchase price of Autonomy, the handling of the spin-off of PC operations, the abrupt shutdown of the webOS hardware business) it's no surprise that a big change was needed.Reasonable people can disagree about the wisdom of making Whitman CEO, but not about HP needing a new CEO in general.

If you want to take HP to the woodshed, look at its increasing use of pro-forma accounting to obscure the deterioration in core businesses and the (negative) implications of the suspect acquisitions. Another negative is that HP will have to substantially ramp R&D to become competitive again as an enterprise supplier after years of overzealous cuts by Mark Hurd. How is HP going to do this.

These issues will determine the next 12-18 months for HP's future. They will determine in large part what Whitman can and can't realistically do. When speaking on the call last evening about why investors should have confidence in HP leadership and direction, Whitman said that HP needed to put up results. While this is true, it's incomplete. The real question is how does Whitman plan to put up results amid a negative intermediate mix shift to lower margin categories and the growing potential for more normalized SG&A leverage on decelerating comp trends.

That's the story on HP.
posted by BadgerDoctor at 7:34 PM on September 23, 2011 [5 favorites]

HP doesn't need another imbecile "we need to execute" professional CEO with a lousy Harvard MBA. It needs someone who actually understands what HP does, what it makes, how it makes those things, and how those things might be made better and sold to more people. Whitman is a professional consultant. She's made millions driving companies into the ground. What on earth was the HP board thinking? It could have hired a framed diploma that said "Harvard" in it and done less damage than Whitman is capable of doing.
posted by 1adam12 at 7:34 PM on September 23, 2011 [5 favorites]

If you want to take HP to the woodshed, look at its increasing use of pro-forma accounting to obscure the deterioration in core businesses and the (negative) implications of the suspect acquisitions. Another negative is that HP will have to substantially ramp R&D to become competitive again as an enterprise supplier after years of overzealous cuts by Mark Hurd. How is HP going to do this.

Jobs saved Apple from very near death, from a similar situation. It can be done.

Obviously, Meg Whitman is no Steve Jobs — not by a country mile. But someone who is that kind of visionary could potentially save HP from itself.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 7:43 PM on September 23, 2011

Because of a few corporate takeovers, my wife ended up working for HP a few years back, with a net service record of 22 years. This was during the reign of terror Mark Hurd, and it was misery for her. Being in purchasing, she and co-workers were routinely beat up for not squeezing enough on their suppliers, while savings targets were continually raised, continuous layoffs, and salaries reduced.

She was unhappy there and we used to joke how nice it would be if she could catch a layoff. And in early 2010, she did. With the fat termination settlement she took a year off, went to chef school, and is now happy as a clam working as a cook.

So, y'know, I gotta thank HP for that. Too bad though for a once great company started by a couple of great engineers, that produced some of the best electronic test equipment I used in the '70s and '80s.
posted by Artful Codger at 7:43 PM on September 23, 2011 [8 favorites]

To be blunt, it was the runaway success of the fire-sale WebPad that doomed Apotheker. It showed that HP was sitting on a brilliant product with enormous demand and limitless room for growth, but could not control costs or understand the concept of a loss-leader to cement market share to take advantage of the brilliant product. It completely undermined everything else he was trying to do - divest the PC business, move towards software and service entirely. They're good ideas, but Leo had just proven he couldn't make money with a good idea.

Meg is a crummy politician, but a good businesswoman. My prediction? She centers the HP brand around WebOS as HP's face towards consumers, and lets the halo product be a loss-leader to bring in business for corporate desktops, enterprise networking and high-end datacenter design. Meg understands how to lose hundreds of millions to make billions.
posted by Slap*Happy at 8:16 PM on September 23, 2011 [1 favorite]

Lol, that company is going down the drain.
posted by delmoi at 8:19 PM on September 23, 2011

"Ronald Reagan was an actor," Lane replied. "He was a pretty good president. OK?"'

Why not hire an actor as CEO? Really shake things up. I heard that James Franco guy was a polymath. Or Jessie Eisenberg played Zuckerburg, so he can probably be a CEO now. Or how about Emma Watson, she can use her magic wand to turn things around!

Wasn't Whitman the brain trust behind the demonic sheep ad in the CA race? Phone being weird, so I'm failing at doing multiple tabs, but every time I hear her name, I think demonic sheep.

Nope, that was an add Carly Fiorina, She was running for senate while Whitman was running for the CA governorship. And, ironically a former HP CEO who's credited with trashing the company.

Speaking of the board as a whole, these were the guys who got caught spying on each other because they were worried about industrial espionage, or something.
posted by delmoi at 8:32 PM on September 23, 2011 [1 favorite]

My prediction? She centers the HP brand around WebOS as HP's face towards consumers

Didn't they just drop WebOS?
posted by drezdn at 8:48 PM on September 23, 2011

Didn't they just drop WebOS?

And who would want to develop major apps for WebOS, given how the company is being run now? Too risky. The best they could do is sell it off to someone who can manage it properly.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 8:55 PM on September 23, 2011 [2 favorites]

So, basically, HP is like Sun. They're doomed, but they're so colossally huge that it's going to take at least a decade. This is not going to fare well for all of their employees.
posted by spiderskull at 8:56 PM on September 23, 2011

They should embrace Android.
posted by rhizome at 9:01 PM on September 23, 2011

that produced some of the best electronic test equipment I used in the '70s and '80s

That company is still around, only it's called Agilent now.
posted by Slothrup at 9:11 PM on September 23, 2011

Speaking of the board as a whole, these were the guys who got caught spying on each other because they were worried about industrial espionage, or something.

These were also the guys who voted to hire Apotheker without actually interviewing him. Almost none of them had even met him prior to hiring him.
posted by ZeusHumms at 9:35 PM on September 23, 2011 [2 favorites]

California's gain is HP's loss.
posted by univac at 9:54 PM on September 23, 2011 [3 favorites]

Does this mean HP calculators will get pastel buttons again?
posted by b1tr0t at 9:55 PM on September 23, 2011

Didn't they just drop WebOS?

They dropped the hardware business; the software side is still around. Of course, without the hardware they don't currently have anything to run the software *on*, but they're still working on it.

(I just switched to Android after spending a year with a WebOS phone. I like that more apps are available, and the fact that some of the functionality -- like location services -- isn't crippled by the carrier, but from a base OS perspective I really miss WebOS.)
posted by asterix at 10:33 PM on September 23, 2011 [1 favorite]

So, basically, HP is like Sun

Oracle will buy them?

Fire the board. If you aren't competent enough to hire leadership that has a gracious 11 months to execute, you do not deserve to make decisions for the stockholders. And Whitman is your visionary? Ugh.
posted by ryoshu at 10:35 PM on September 23, 2011

They picked the wrong board member. It should have been Ann Livermore.

Fuck knows why they keep passing her over.
posted by Talez at 10:48 PM on September 23, 2011 [1 favorite]

I have no clue how this woman is let anywhere near handling a Fortune 500 after the mistakes she did at E - "a monkey could drive this train" - bay.

To be fair, eBay has only gotten worse since she left. I mean, it was getting worse while she was there too, but.... I dunno, she probably helped eBay a lot, for a while.
posted by Chuckles at 11:29 PM on September 23, 2011

Meg is a crummy politician, but a good businesswoman

How so? She came to eBay after eBay had established early critical mass and significant first-mover advantage in a sector (Internet auctions) where those advantages are sina qua non for success. Whitman basically came in and took a ride at the top of a wave and then walked eBay into a scenario of feature bloat and strategic malaise. She bought companies (e.g. Skype) that had *nothing* to do with eBay's core business, etc. etc. She failed to turn around FTD. She spent $140MILLION to buy the governorship in CA, and lost.

Meg Whitman is a very smart woman, with lots of money, a good pedigree, and powerful connections. That's it. She is completely overrated as a business leader.

Fiorina killed the "H-P Way", which was the key to success at the company. The "real HP", Agilent, got spun off. Sad.

There aren't too many good people left. When rumors started about dumping the hardware business, they lost a *ton* of key internal consultants who took customers with them.

All the best Palm developers left.

hp is screwed. No leadership; good people gone (in critical mass); an ego-driven, dysfunctional board. Little good will left among customers.

My guess? Whitman will preside over the eventual dissolution of hp, parting it out and selling it. She won't take heat because everyone will say "she came into an impossible situation", blah, blah. If hp manages to survive, Whitman will take all the credit, even though she probably can't tell an enterprise server from a stationary PC.

This gig keeps her in the CEO game - where even failed CEO's somehow find themselves reappointed to the same gig, over and over - it's about powerful wealth networks in high places; these people take care of their own; they stroke each other because they never know when one or another of them may find position in high government or corporate positions, where favors can be rendered, or returned. Damn the employees. Really, who cares, at that level? Fuck 'em; they're only workers; they're replaceable; they can be outsourced; the CEO needs to please the street, with "bold" moves, and "vision".

Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard would be shocked, ashamed, and grossly disappointed to see what became of what was once a crown jewel of Silicon Valley. Think about it. What does hp do that someone else can't do these days? Sadly, I think hp's eyes are just starting to roll back, as it takes its last breath.
posted by Vibrissae at 11:30 PM on September 23, 2011 [23 favorites]

HP doesn't need another imbecile "we need to execute" professional CEO with a lousy Harvard MBA. It needs someone who actually understands what HP does, what it makes, how it makes those things, and how those things might be made better and sold to more people.

And just what does HP do now? It's swallowed a computer company (Compaq), a phone company (Palm), a services company (EDS), and spun out it's original core business (Agilent) it seems like HP is now nothing more than IBM-lite. And they don't have at tradition and reputation of decades of results in those businesses.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 12:04 AM on September 24, 2011 [2 favorites]

The high CEO turnover does seem to point to board problems. So, who are these people and where did they come from?

• Marc L. Andreessen (2009) - co-founder of Netscape
• Lawrence T. Babbio, Jr. (2002) - Bell Atlantic/Verizon
• Sari M. Baldauf (2006) - Nokia
• Shumeet Banerji (2011) - Booz Allen Hamilton
• Rajiv L. Gupta (2009) - Rohm and Haas (materials mfg)
• John H. Hammergren (2005) - McKesson (healthcare IT)
• Raymond J. Lane (2010) - Kleiner Perkins, Oracle, and Booz Allen Hamilton
• Ann M. Livermore (2011) - HP
• Gary M. Reiner (2011) - GE
• Patricia F. Russo (2011) - Lucent
• Dominique Senequier (2011) - founder of AXA Private Equity
• G. Kennedy Thompson (2006) - First Union/Wachovia
• Meg Whitman (2011) - eBay

Interestingly, 6 of the 13 board members (including Whitman) joined only this year. Five of them (all but Ann Livermore) apparently came in after a shake-up in January, possibly instigated by Apotheker. Not sure what this all means.
posted by mhum at 12:36 AM on September 24, 2011 [2 favorites]

My buddy who works for HP thinks the only reason they selected Apotheker is because no one else on their list would take the job for any salary after the last two got canned.

Personally I think HP needs to get back to it's innovative skunk works roots, and how better than to downsize to the point where they can move back into a garage?
posted by BrotherCaine at 12:46 AM on September 24, 2011 [1 favorite]

Asinus asinum fricat.
posted by benzenedream at 1:22 AM on September 24, 2011

Marc L. Andreessen (2009) - co-founder of Netscape
Anfreeson has made some good investments (e.g. Twitter) re: what they may return on*equity*, but really, how many of his companies (aside from Netscape, which started out as a team research effort) have *made sustainable revenues*. And look what happened to Netscape. Andreeson formed Loudcloud, sold it to Opsware, which was bought by hp for $1.6B. That's Andreeson's connection. Andreeson was an early web visionary, but there is little real luster left. He's mostly a valley insider - and very well connected because of the Netscape experience. Smart guy, but visionary re: hp's needs? Besides, he was around during the really screwed Hurd dismissal.

Lawrence T. Babbio, Jr. (2002) - Bell Atlantic/Verizon
An old telecom dinosaur; lots of large enterprise experience, but SO last century. Got himself in lots of legal trouble on the Board of Steven's Institute of Technology because of financial transparancy issues - it was a huge case.

Sari M. Baldauf (2006) - Nokia
Another late-90's retread. Left Nokia for personal reasons about 8-9 years ago and has held nothing but BOard positions since. Out of touch.

Shumeet Banerji (2011) - Booz Allen Hamilton
CEO, Booz and Company - this guy has pretty serious worldwide street cred in his specialty - but he's really not a tech guy

Rajiv L. Gupta (2009) - Rohm and Haas (materials mfg)
Chair and CEO of Rohm and Haas - another seriously smart and savvy dude - knows his stuff, but was also in on the Hurd thing. Makes you wonder.

John H. Hammergren (2005) - McKesson (healthcare IT)
McKesson CEO - a drug company. Where does he fit in, strategically? Maybe as a contact into high places that hp service sector wants exposure in. But does he understand the business?

Raymond J. Lane (2010) - Kleiner Perkins, Oracle, and Booz Allen Hamilton
Stints as EPS, Oracle, etc. - knows the business

Ann M. Livermore (2011) - HP
Has run hp enterprise services - been around forever, but for crying out loud, she was one of the people who presided over Fiorina's gutting the company. She's out of touch with what this company needs.

Gary M. Reiner (2011) - GE
ex-CIO at GE - did a lot for GE during GE's biggest days.

Patricia F. Russo (2011) - Lucent
ex-Lucent CEO - at the helm as Lucent went bust - a perpetual Board member -

Dominique Senequier (2011) - founder of AXA Private Equity
The "French Queen of Private Equity" - a real doer - formidable intellect - hard to believe that she helped Whitman get the CEO spot.

G. Kennedy Thompson (2006) - First Union/Wachovia
Pushed out after many gaffs at Wachovie - why is he even here? Answer: connections

Meg Whitman (2011) - eBay
hopeless as a leader - no real enterprise experience, rich, smart, well-connected - nothing to lose

THere are some very smart people on this Board, but they don't seem to have a clue. Just look at the Palm debacle and Apothker hiring as examples. Pathetic performance. INdividually all very accomplished in their own way, but completely dysfunctional as a Board.
posted by Vibrissae at 1:57 AM on September 24, 2011 [6 favorites]

Whatever else you may say about HP over the last decade or so, they supported the basic research that let to memristors, which is going to be a big big deal, though it's not clear to me whether HP will actually profit from it. That kind of basic research is too seldom done anymore, and HP deserves larger recognition for even attempting it.
posted by newdaddy at 4:30 AM on September 24, 2011 [2 favorites]

"Ronald Reagan was an actor," Lane replied. "He was a pretty good president. OK?"'

I shall gather my HP calculators and test gear to me, hug them, and whisper that it's going to be okay.
posted by scruss at 5:28 AM on September 24, 2011 [6 favorites]

It needs someone who actually understands what HP does, what it makes, how it makes those things, and how those things might be made better and sold to more people.

I am both fascinated and repelled by Modern Day CEOs. As an outsider it is hard to reconcile the immense salaries and power base of these guys to their actual performance. I would love to know their inner thoughts. Are they fearful? Are they smug? Are they confident? Or do they just hug themselves daily in delightfed surprise over the mind-boggling position they find themselves in?

Chieftains or witch doctors? Professors or 4 star Generals? Glorified Accountants or Big Game Hunters? Or just actors pretending they know their lines?
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 5:51 AM on September 24, 2011 [8 favorites]

Maybe if hp fails badly enough Agilent can buy all the assets and take over the name.
posted by LastOfHisKind at 6:00 AM on September 24, 2011 [2 favorites]

This abomination was their ad campaign for the re-issue of the 12c and 15c. It's like they drew a bead on their target market and then turned 180 degrees and shot into the range.
posted by sonic meat machine at 7:05 AM on September 24, 2011 [1 favorite]

Chieftains or witch doctors? Professors or 4 star Generals? Glorified Accountants or Big Game Hunters? Or just actors pretending they know their lines?

Actually, they are psychopaths.
posted by snofoam at 7:05 AM on September 24, 2011 [1 favorite]

Quote that HP chose to put in the ad for the 12c and 15c:

"Ignorance of the 12c can flash more warning signs than a scuffed pair of shoes"
- Wall Street Journal

Fuck 'em all.

(I wonder if we can convince Agilent to start making calculators?)
posted by benito.strauss at 7:27 AM on September 24, 2011

These were also the guys who voted to hire Apotheker without actually interviewing him. Almost none of them had even met him prior to hiring him.

Smithers, I've just seen the most heroic dog on television. Find this dog. I want to make him my Executive Vice President.
posted by ignignokt at 7:43 AM on September 24, 2011 [3 favorites]

This abomination was their ad campaign for the re-issue of the 12c and 15c. It's like they drew a bead on their target market and then turned 180 degrees and shot into the range.

Are you trying to say that successful black men can't be techno-fetishists?

To me, that ad recalls Morpheus offering a red pill of retro-calculator goodness.
posted by b1tr0t at 8:21 AM on September 24, 2011

I think the problem with the ad was that they were (apparently) targeting rich wall-street tycoons or something, marketing it as a lifestyle accessory like an expensive watch -- as opposed to nerds.
posted by delmoi at 8:37 AM on September 24, 2011 [2 favorites]

Andreeson was an early web visionary, but there is little real luster left. He's mostly a valley insider - and very well connected because of the Netscape experience. Smart guy, but visionary re: hp's needs? Besides, he was around during the really screwed Hurd dismissal.

Really? He's on the HP board because he and partner Ben Horowitz were able to keep LoudCloud alive when the bubble burst, sell off part of the company to EDS and pivot the remaining part of the company--OpsWare--into an enterprise that HP bought for $1.6B in cash.

In 2009, he and Horwitz founded their venture firm, made a $50M investment in Skype which played out very nicely when Microsoft bought the company and meanwhile have been early investors in Facebook, Zynga, Foursquare, and Groupon. Hard to image how that jibes with having "little real luster left."
posted by donovan at 10:16 AM on September 24, 2011 [2 favorites]

I think the problem with the ad was that they were (apparently) targeting rich wall-street tycoons or something, marketing it as a lifestyle accessory like an expensive watch -- as opposed to nerds.

The 12c absolutely is a lifestyle accessor - for financial professionals. That ad targets them perfectly, and also hits fashionable urban nerds.

But real nerds carry iPhones or Androids as their lifestyle accessories. Only the deeply hardcore calculator fetishists are going to go for the 15c reissue. To get them, all you need to do is announce its existence.
posted by b1tr0t at 10:47 AM on September 24, 2011

Hewlett-Packard had their Steve Jobs a generation ago, their names were Hewlett and Packard.
posted by whuppy at 11:56 AM on September 24, 2011 [4 favorites]

Maybe Steve Jobs needs to write out rules on who to allow to join Apple's board, lest it turn out like HP.
posted by ZeusHumms at 12:05 PM on September 24, 2011 [1 favorite]

If Whitman does to HP's finances what Reagan did for the United States', there will be a lot of engineers hitting the unemployment lines.

HP still employs engineers? I thought all they had was middle-managers.
posted by acb at 3:35 PM on September 24, 2011

Maybe Steve Jobs needs to write out rules on who to allow to join Apple's board, lest it turn out like HP.

The board is picked by the stockholders, not the CEO.
posted by delmoi at 3:41 PM on September 24, 2011

He's on the HP board because he and partner Ben Horowitz were able to keep LoudCloud alive when the bubble burst, sell off part of the company to EDS and pivot the remaining part of the company--OpsWare--into an enterprise that HP bought for $1.6B in cash.

In 2009, he and Horwitz founded their venture firm, made a $50M investment in Skype which played out very nicely when Microsoft bought the company and meanwhile have been early investors in Facebook, Zynga, Foursquare, and Groupon. Hard to image how that jibes with having "little real luster left."

Loudcloud was almost a decade ago, and his other investments are late stage - not exactly prescient. And, like I said, Andreeson is a smart guy who is adept at managing returns on *equity*. He's not a formidable visionary i terms of investing Series A rounds. He follows - that's the difference.

Andreeson had his day with Netscape - now he's playing backup to the big boys.
posted by Vibrissae at 5:29 PM on September 24, 2011

Have to say I feel like a big fool for holding on to some HP stock on the hopes that when they bought Palm that might have meant they had the ability to recognize the real potential of the platform and maybe even realize some of it.

The overwhelming evidence since the purchase of Compaq might have been something I should have payed attention to instead.
posted by weston at 5:48 PM on September 24, 2011

It needs someone who actually understands what HP does...

What is that? I don't ask this rhetorically, because I don't know what HP does anymore. They used to make great calculators. They don't now. They bought Compaq, but their PC business is lame and no different from PC Clone Manufacturer XYZ. I remember OpenView used to be cool along with HPUX, but I doubt that is around. WebOS was dumped. They used to make second tier networking gear. Do they now?

What do you think when you think HP? Their website says "Laptops, Tablets (!), Desktops, and (seriously) Ink & Toner". Would any of you think "Hewlett Packard!" if you were shopping for any of that drivel?

Tech companies need to evolve and innovate to survive. I don't think HP has innovated for 20 years. That makes me believe that Whitman will be their last CEO.
posted by pashdown at 6:17 PM on September 24, 2011 [1 favorite]