HP’s Board May Fire CEO & Bring on Meg Whiteman
Hewlett-Packard board convened on Wednesday to consider ousting Chief Executive Officer Leo Apotheker after less than a year on the job and replacing him temporarily with former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, a source familiar with the matter said. The board of directors — facing shareholder lawsuits and intensifying criticism from investors — is thrashing out a host of issues, including whether to name Whitman as the interim CEO. This doesn’t come as too big of a shock to us as Leo Apotheker has put himself in the spotlight lately with the massive screw-up concerning WebOS, planning to spin off of the PC division and for trying to make HP more like IBM?
HP is trying to contain a crisis of credibility on multiple fronts, starting with its leadership. No decisions have yet been made on the leadership issue, the source said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. If Apotheker is let go, he would be the third CEO in a row to be ousted by the board. Wall Street wasted no time in roaring its approval, sending shares in the largest U.S. technology company by sales up more than 11 percent for a market value gain of nearly $5 billion.
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