Former eBay CEO Meg Whitman has considered by Hewlett-Packard directors as an candidate for CEO, in a move that could replace its current leader Léo Apotheker, in accordance with several sources towards the situation.
The appointment of Whitman - a longtime and experienced Silicon Valley exec, who joined the board of Hewlett-Packard in January - up job at HP is actually no means a done deal, sources said.
But a significant contingent on the board is keen to get rid of Apotheker after what some directors consider a compilation of management mishaps.
Whether it occurs, it would be the next major CEO ouster in rapid sequence - Yahoo recently fired its CEO Carol Bartz due to lackluster performance.
[UPDATE: Wall Street generally seems to much like the Apotheker-gone idea, with HP shares spiking almost eight percent on our news, and a simultaneous Bloomberg report. The increase has added almost $3 billion to HP's market valuation.]
Moreover, sources said Whitman has been contemplating taking another big exec job, after having a 10-year stint at eBay, which has been as well as an unsuccessful run because Republican nominee for governor of California recently. Subsequently, she's been a part-time consultant at top venture firm Kleiner Perkins.
Her role there - that has largely been seen as a temporary one - has included in the role of a strategic adviser to start-ups and evaluating investment opportunities.
Sources said Whitman - that has already been active along with her family foundation - has demonstrated some desire for discussing taking the HP job.
Checking out Whitman may not be an unexpected, given there are few execs in tech experienced enough to run a real large and complex organization as HP.
Still, her expertise has mostly experienced the consumer space and she or he has never run precisely what is largely a hardware company the other with major enterprise clients.
So, if appointed, Whitman would want a great deal of help, especially to fix one with as much troubles as HP has seen these days.
This is why the board continues to be meeting by phone as well as in person now to share with you an array of issues, focused to some extent on the way to spin the corporation out of its current cycle of not so good news and what to do about your situation.
Its most recent spate of trouble was the announcement of layoffs of hundreds of employees in their Palm division.
This inevitable turn to jettison Palm employees came after HP’s sudden news in August that it was shuttering its webOS hardware business.
Help to increase a proposed class action lawsuit lawsuit, filed Sept. 13 inside U.S. District Court for Central California, in addition to another couple of law firms which are launching their particular investigations of HP over the move.
Within the suit, based on a study by Arik Hesseldahl, an “HP shareholder named Richard Gammel alleged that comments by CEO Léo Apotheker - with regards to the company’s earnings expectations, the need for its computer system business and intends to progress with devices running the webOS os - gave a vastly different indication of actions HP took on Aug. 18, if this killed the webOS hardware business and announced offers to spin from the PC business and spend $10 billion to get Autonomy.”
In other words, lots to go over for HP’s directors, who have been under siege, essentially, since that time the first kind CEO Mark Hurd resigned pressurized at least a year ago over the selection of allegations about expense reports in connection with a sexual harassment inquiry. The board found no evidence to support the sexual harassment claim.
Inside the wake of this scandal, HP appointed Apotheker to take over for Hurd.
It's been a bumpy ride, as HP’s stock has plummeted almost 43 percent in the year’s time. Electrical systems, rival Oracle’s shares are up more than three percent inside the same period, and Apple stock has risen a lot more than Fifty percent.
That share decline, given some major moves and merely numerous gaffes, has put Apotheker - that has been attempting to reposition HP largely as an enterprise company - inside hot seat.
An HP spokeswoman declined to comment. I have several calls in to reach Whitman and also have not yet heard back.
More ahead, obviously. But, until there is more news, here's the video with the full interview with Apotheker in the ninth D: Things Digital conference august.
At D9, the former SAP chief stated that he'd not ship the now-doomed TouchPad until it absolutely was perfect. Ooops!
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