

Whitman Expected to Get HP CEO Nod After Markets Close - charlief
http://allthingsd.com/20110922/exclusive-whitman-expected-to-get-ceo-nod-after-markets-close-and-not-for-the-interim-either/

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pessimist
The really disgusting part is that these CEO's have absolutely nothing to
lose. If Meg Whitman gets this job she is basically guaranteed 10's of
millions of dollars - whether or not she ruins the company. Carly Fiorina,
Mark Hurd, Leo Apotheker and the ex-Compaq CEO (Capellas?) all walked away
with 20+ million dollars. And for what?

Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard - not to mention Steve Jobs, Gates, Zuckerberg
etc. - earned their billions with brilliant and gutsy decision making, while
these parasites earned their money by being better schmoozers than their
business school classmates.

~~~
cynicalkane
Imagine if you worked for BigCo, and one day your boss says to you, "You're
fired... and we're also taking back your stock options and severance pay."

Because that's what you're proposing doing to a CEO. Yeah, they're rich and
proportionally more of their pay is comprised of non-salary items. Oh well.
Yeah, you don't like what HP executive management did to the company. I agree,
it sucks. But in the real world, people negotiate trading work for pay, and
you can't just yank it back because you didn't like the work.

(Unless you negotiate some provision to do so, which some companies do. But
not HP.)

~~~
pessimist
Well, if I get fired, my unvested stock options certainly dont suddenly vest.
And I dont get any severance pay. So yes, I propose that CEO's get exactly
that treatment.

~~~
cynicalkane
I'd say it's time for you to negotiate yourself to another company. Severance
pay, at least, should be standard.

(Edit: I'm taking the inference you're working for a big company. If you're
working for a startup, we're talking about a whole 'nother world.)

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SurfScore
There was an article I read about this yesterday on one of the big tech
websites, I'm not sure which one. HP basically hired a guy that was good at
something, and operated in a certain way, and now that he's doing it, they're
firing him. Granted, not everything has been well-executed, but come on, its
like buying a motorcycle and then returning it because it isn't air-
conditioned.

~~~
icefox
Really have to ponder why Whitman would take this job given the probability of
being fired next year no matter what happens...

~~~
jm4
Are you a football fan? The CEO job at HP right now is pretty much like the
head coach job with the Oakland Raiders. It's a completely dysfunctional
organization. If you succeed you're the genius that was able to turn it
around. If you don't then Al Davis takes the blame and you get a free pass.
You get paid either way. And you have to remember there are only 32 head
coaching jobs available so it's great work if you can't get the same job with
another team.

Being CEO of one of the world's largest companies is a similarly exclusive
club. Who wouldn't take that job?

~~~
SurfScore
hahahaha you just compared the HP board of directors to Al Davis, that is just
plain awesome

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ScottBurson
During Whitman's gubernatorial campaign there was a great quote on SFGate,
something like: "Meg Whitman is the only force in the universe that could
compel me to vote for Jerry Brown." I felt the same way, pretty much.

I don't know much about her work at eBay, but the distant, autocratic way she
ran her campaign -- she didn't get out and talk to people, she just stayed in
her castle and put out ads -- strikes me as the antithesis of the management
style needed by a company in crisis.

~~~
elq
I once got a chance to talk to Meg when I worked at eBay. After the, very
brief, interaction I dubbed her "Queen Margaret" as the look on her face
suggested that rabble like me shouldn't be seen, at least by the aristocracy.

Also, across the street from the eBay HQ in Campbell there was a restaurant
that had failed and Hooters wanted to open a location in it's place. Meg
fought Hooters for nearly two years.

Good luck HP, you're going to need it.

~~~
cynest
I had a similar experience when she visited my AP econ class shortly after
declaring her candidacy. She displayed a mixture of being obviously uninformed
and having contempt for her audience.

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untog
Good grief. This reflects far worse on the board than anyone else- they hired
the wrong guy, and then fired him when he did the things he said he would do.

~~~
Uhhrrr
Well - once they've gone down the wrong path, realizing it and making a
correction should reflect better on them (although it still shows poor
predictive skills IMHO).

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axusgrad
I'm sure she will do for HP's reputation what she did for PayPal, and build
value like she did with Skype.

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A-K
So effectively Apotheker was brought in, trashed Palm, spun off the PC
division, and now is getting the boot? The suggestion that HP replace the
entirety of its upper management, Apple-circa-1996-style, is becoming more and
more credible.

~~~
abrowne
He wasn't even that successful. He only got to the point of "maybe we should
spin off the PC division, or do something else with it" without actually
announcing (or maybe even having!) a plan to do so.

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itships
Back when I was doing e-commerce, a large percentage of my revenue was on eBay
from '05-'09. I didn't realize how stagnant the platform was until John
Donahoe replaced Whitman and finally changes were made to increase safety for
buyers and differentiate sellers in the marketplace. I don't think ebay would
have lost so much 3rd-party seller market share to Amazon if Whitman had been
proactive.

I don't know what the HP board is hoping for by hiring Whitman as CEO, but if
it's anything other than "steady as she goes," then I think they are making a
bad choice.

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protomyth
Normally I like hires within, but hiring a board member is just trouble.
Particularly one who has been around for the total collapse of the stock.
Apple had a natural and trained successor in-house and was running smoothly,
HP needs a product guy who can articulate a new HP way.

Ms. Whitman is just the wrong person. Heck, I am not fond about his time at
Apple or Be, but Jean-Louis Gassée (if he has learned price does matter) would
be a better choice from the product side. He would need a strong CFO and COO
to make it work. Not ideal but better.

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privacyguru
I have much respect for Meg Whitman, but she is not an ideal pick for HP. Her
experience is with consumer companies -- eBay, P&G, Disney...Especially if HP
spins off its PC business, that leaves the company as essentially a pure
enterprise hardware/software play. Don't do it HP.

~~~
notatoad
is the Autonomy acquisition finalized yet? it seems like maybe this is a
signal that HP will attempt to refocus on its consumer products?

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sp332
My favorite quote in this conversation so far: "[Ms. Whitman] is bit of a
lightning rod in Silicon Valley, where founders are allowed to have outsize
personalities but mere managers are not."
[https://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/22/technology/idea-of-
whitma...](https://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/22/technology/idea-of-whitman-at-
hp-distresses-the-tech-world.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all)

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sudonim
When I read the headline, I was hoping for another Whitman. Alas, it was the
one I feared. Meg Whitman has never struck me as a visionary CEO who can fix a
broken company. It seems like if this goes through, HP will be relegated to a
slow death. Whitman will get out with a golden parachute and HP will be on to
the next person who will suck some blubber out of a dying whale. Am I too
cynical?

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r00fus
God help those poor souls still stuck at HP. The gubernatorial campaign
exposed all sorts of character flaws and showed that Whitman has a complete
lack of empathy for people who work for her.

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ahi
The HP board is less organized than my local kickball league.

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mikeryan
This strikes me as a hire very much in the same vein as Bartz at Yahoo.
Successful with on particular type of tech company doesn't mean success with
another. (Apotheker being a similar example).

Whitman could be very competent and turn things around, she sends likely a
good message to wall street. But if I were the king of HP I'd be looking for
someone who's got way more domain experience.

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r00fus
Worst tech BoD ever: HP or Yahoo? I'm thinking this pushes HP over the line.

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9999
I really hoped her disastrous run for governor of CA would be the last thing
the public ever heard from her. Her hilariously stupid decisions during the
acquisition of Skype made me think she would have very little future after
eBay. It boggles my mind that the HP board would even briefly consider her...
What HP really needs is a new board and a new CEO...

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mdanger
Cringley's article from February: [http://www.cringely.com/2011/02/why-leo-
apotheker-will-be-fi...](http://www.cringely.com/2011/02/why-leo-apotheker-
will-be-fired-from-hewlett-packard/)

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rbanffy
The most depressing part? "He will be fired, of course, with a nice, big (and
appalling, considering the 47 drop in HP stock in his tensure) severance
package as a goodbye-on-your-way out."

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lobster45
HP should buy Yahoo and then both companies can spiral down until their stock
is low enough to be picked up by AOL

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maxharris
Does this mean they'll bring back the TouchPad? Is it even possible, given the
people they just laid off from that team?

~~~
thought_alarm
Killing WebOS and undoing the Palm acquisition was the best thing Apotheker
did for HP.

WebOS features some impressive application design on top of a turkey of an OS.
HP shouldn't have tried to ship any of that junk.

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bane
So wait, is Apotheker out yet or not?

Either way, what a waste of time his entire tenure has been.

~~~
raganwald

      what a waste of time his entire tenure has been
    

The stock has gone down 47%, and he will walk away with approximately thirty
million dollars. “Waste of time” doesn’t quite capture my thoughts about his
tenure.

[http://allthingsd.com/20110921/what-will-leo-apotheker-
walk-...](http://allthingsd.com/20110921/what-will-leo-apotheker-walk-away-
with-if-hes-fired/)

~~~
Raphael
Colossal failure?

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DevX101
Am I the only one noticing some latent sexism in some of these comments?

I view Whitman's role with Ebay as comparable to Eric Schmidt and Google. Both
joined about 2 years about their respective companies were founded and made
them #1 in each of their target sectors.

I don't think anyone here would seriously question that Eric Schmidt could run
HP (not that he'd want to).

But reading through these comments, I'm getting the impression people think
she's unqualified to run HP, even with her impressive track record and having
been on the board of HP to understand what's actually happening there.

So is it me, or am I reading to much into this?

~~~
benmccann
Simply because someone thinks that one particular woman might not be great at
one particular job does not make them a sexist. Also, I don't think success at
Ebay and Google are exactly comparable. Ebay is a dual-sided market. Once they
became dominant it'd be very hard to unseat them. In this environment it's
very possible Ebay was able to succeed in spite of Meg Whitman not because of
her. She made some very good moves like acquiring PayPal and some very bad
moves like acquiring Skype. I don't have much of an opinion on how Meg Whitman
would do in the role, but I think HP's board royally screwed up and will not
make the job easier. They hired Apotheker, approved of his acquisitions, and
never gave his strategy a chance to work before deciding to fire the guy. HP's
board needs to be replaced.

