With the changes in direction that HP has been experiencing in recent months, it seems that the company is moving away from the hardware business that they have been in for year and instead focusing more on the software side of the business and the associated services that go with that. The company has taken a lot of heat because of discontinuance of the webOS products and talk of selling or spinning off the PC business that has done well for them in the past. Now comes rumors that the board of directors at HP is considering removing Leo Apotheker, their CEO, who has not even been with the company a full year.
This is being reported by Bloomberg and All Things D, each from a different source who is in the know. It seems that Meg Whitman is being talked about in reports as being a possible successor to Leo Apotheker in the interim period until HP finds a permanent successor. All of this is based on rumor, so that may be all that it is.
Even with it being a rumor, investors saw this as a positive and HP stock rose 7% for the day based on the rumor. It seems that the market has not been pleased with the direction that HP has been heading for most of the year and the sudden drop in August with the announcement regarding the webOS products being removed. That action has resulted in shareholder lawsuits and they are growing, along with the board of directors feeling a lot of heat. Things have not been going well for HP for the past few years. The situation where Mark Hurd was forced to resign and then was subsequently hired by Oracle created a lot of problems for HP at the time when Leo Apotheker was beginning his role as CEO at HP.
Even rumors of Meg Whitman taking on the role of CEO in the interim is not receiving full support and some are speculating that she might not be the right person for that job. Disruption is not what HP needs right now, but stability so they need to make some changes to put things back on course for the company and regain their reputation that has been soiled recently, especially with the HP TouchPad fire sale.
All of this is rumors, but it is starting to sound like it is a work in progress and it may be days away from an announcement by HP of a change at the top of the organization.
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