“If Hewlett-Packard Co. ever hopes to match International Business Machines Corp. in the service and servers game, it needs to learn how to pick a chief executive and leave that person in as CEO,” John C. Dvorak writes for MarketWatch. “As we all know now, the company has ditched former SAP AG Léo Apotheker for ex-eBay Inc. boss Meg Whitman.”
“Whitman will get nowhere, and I predict that she will be gone within 24 months. This isn’t based on anything she may or may not do; this is based on the track record of what is turning out to be a weird board of directors at H-P,” Dvorak writes. “It’s made up of a few telecom folks, a coder, insurance-company people, straight-up investors. Not sure what any of them brings to the table, except for perhaps Executive Chairman Ray Lane and Executive VP Ann Livermore.”
Dvorak writes, “Whitman may be the perfect chief executive for H-P, since she was involved in auctions and the company could be sold off in pieces. After all, the book value is around $19, which seems to be about where the stock price is headed. Perfect time to auction off everything! Perhaps she’ll sell the whole company to Apple Inc. or Oracle Corp. or even to IBM. And to heck with a premium, sell it at a good, low eBay price! Click and buy.”
Read more in the full article here.
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What’s the “Buy It Now” price?
I remember when I looked up to HP. Early in my career, I even thought about working there.
Predicting the ousting of an HP CEO is no longer “news”.
Nor is it a “prediction”.
That long? I give that bitch 9 months, 12 tops. Man, what a doofus. She’s no goddamn Steve Jobs, that’s for sure.
Why all the trash language? You can make your point with out garbage,,,,
Profanity is the attempt of a lazy and feeble mind to express itself forcefully.
facts are facts- she’s a one trick pony soccer mom who was lucky enough to be the one to bring yard sales to the internet.
and she is a fat bitch to boot. A true MILTWAF.
A mom I’d like to walk away from. and quickly!
I don’t care how you want to put it. When the executioner’s axe falls you think your Harvard mouth is gonna stop it? Give me a break.
Not quite as bad as carol bartz but getting there!
It really is pitiful that we have to endure someone like BLN who not only uses inappropriate language on his posts but has chosen a crude moniker. Not a class act.
You think I give a f*** what you think? Not a chance.
So which are you, Balmy Baby: A sniveling little glue-sniffing, pimpy-faced kid or a bitter, drunken old fart?
I remember when BLN first hit the scene, eveyone initially gave him shit but then soon learned his comments were typically intelligent and insightful.
Lately however, it’s like someone has jacked his handle and a completely different person is commenting.
Couldn’t agree more.
@Rg5 and @DMac… fuque off and die dorkmonger diquewads.
And how old are you? Twelve?!
With this, Dvorak is definitely correct. HP board is ridiculous, especially their chairman Lane, who regularly exposes himself as sleazy, evasive, nonsense talking loser.
Mr Crankypants strikes again.
““Whitman may be the perfect chief executive for H-P, since she was involved in auctions and the company could be sold off in pieces.”
LOL. Ouch.
Meg, don’t worry, Dvorak doesn’t know his ass from a hole in the ground.
Kinda like “Ballmer’s left nut” ?
Exactly like BLN! Both asshatz.
Amazing how inept visionless management can hobble a company that once held great expectations. Around 2002-ish, HP was considered one of the few companies that could achieve “convergence” in lifestyle devices. They made PCs, printer/scan/fax machines, cameras, PDAs, mice, keyboards, servers, etc. All they needed was an OS of their own to tie it all together in order to compete with Apple. They even made noise about potentially dropping Windows to use an in-house build of Linux to do just that … then MicroSoft postured, HP backed down, and it’s been a race downhill ever since.
Meg Whitman, is santorum. HP had a chance to compete when they bought webos. They should have developed that and made quality products to support it. She will fail just like her politics. She will drain the company and still lose. Apple should be dancing. The only threat that had a chance…..poof gone! I hope they churn out another batch of 99$ pads though.
— Whitman is part of the Board!
some say after her failure to get elected governor, she wiggled to get Apo fired and hired herself.
Eric (the Mole) Schmidt must admire her at least.
Opinion of the guy who got nowhere
Beauty. And he’s a crab ass to boot!
Most likely, Meg will be at HP until Ray Lane departs, or, her severance package tops $25 million.
He’s right, and from what I’ve seen and heard from Whitman, I can understand this time why he’s come up with another rare but accurate assessment.
Interesting comment about the board – explains a lot. Whitman hardly set the world on fire at eBay – she is a terrible choice for HP, and that reflects badly on the board. This reminds me of the CEO choices Apple made in the 90s – they nearly killed the company.
It’s always worth watching Dvorak’s scattergun rantings – every so often he comes out with a gem.
She’ll be gone, but with another truckload of undeserved cash. The system of executive compensation in American corporations is criminally incompetent. The shareholders could sue if they had half a brain between them, which they obviously don’t or they would never stand for these ridiculous charades.
MDN should setup a poll titled “How long Meg will stay as H.P. CEO?” 🙂
If Dvorak says this – then Whitman will lead HP to great success!! Apple lovers beware!!!!
HP should pull an Apple and bring back the founders.
Oh, they’re dead?
Couldn’t do any worse than the last few CEOs.
This is so sad. I grew up feeling great respect for HP products. I remember spending about three weeks pay just after getting out of the university for an HP-55. I still have it and it still works. Now they seem to have lost their way. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see them sell of parts of themselves in the near future.
There was a time when HP was the>/i> place to work in Silicon Valley. Now they’ve got Godzilla as their CEO. Definitely a sad state of affairs.
If Dvorak says this it must be time to buy HP stock!