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HP Begins Laying Off WebOS Developers, Potentially Firing CEO
MrCrassic writes "Looks like it might be the beginning of the end for webOS presence at HP, as The Register announced that they laid off 525 webOS developers." From the article: "HP is laying off up to 525 staff from its global webOS hardware biz, according to reports. The tech titan confirmed last month it is shuttering the unit that produced the ill-fated TouchPad and Pre3 devices. 'As communicated on 18 August, HP will discontinue the development of webOS devices within the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2011, which ends 31 Oct 2011,' an HP spokesperson told AllThingsD in the US."
So far it looks like just the hardware designers are being let go. The HP board happens to be meeting today, possibly to discuss firing the current CEO for failing to improve the company's financial prospects.
Would it be possible to lay those off too and replace them with IT people?
...that nothing they do makes any sense.
This is exactly what they said they would do a month ago. They have been quite clear going forward, they would continue work on webOS itself, just not webOS hardware. So I don't see how this is the "end" of webOS at HP, it's the same thing they've been saying for a month now.
"Not to mention all the idiots who use words like boxen."
Anonymous Coward on Monday August 04, @06:49PM
Note that the article says "hardware staff" not "WebOS Developers." Since HP is discontinuing hardware development for WebOS platforms this is not surprising. I suspect they will continue to own the operating system in hopes of licensing it to other companies.
Who s*cked more at their job, but gets a golden parachute?
Apotheker has to be one of the worst appointments I've seen in 20 years.
At least Chain-saw Al Dunlap was hired for the express purpose of being a major league a-hole.
Apotheker showed a shocking poverty of understanding of the empire he was entrusted to run that it makes me seriously question the competency of the people that vetted him?
Old age and treachery almost always overcome youth and skill.
This should not come as a shock to anyone. If I was a WebOS developer working for HP, you can bet your ass I'd have been spending the last couple of months applying elsewhere. As far as the CEO - I'm sure he has a nice, golden parachute. Bend over, stockholders....
They may not have had months of notice. The HP Touchpad firesale was only about 5 weeks ago. I talked to an HP employee the day before the announcement, and she had no idea this was going on. She dealt exclusively with the Touchpad.
Hp is a sinking ship that cant attract anyone that has any management skills. The current guy has a bad track record, and the possible replacement they are looking at, she's not much better.
This is what happens when your products suck, your service sucks, and most people say, "HP? that stuff is crap, dont buy it"
The only way to turn it around is to start "not sucking"....
Step 1 - Fire every designer in the laptop division. Whoever green lighted the seamless trackpad should be tied up and whipped in front of all the other employees as an example.
Step 2 - Fire every stylist in the PC division. Sorry but trendy = dumb and that failure of a removable drive bay needs to go. Anyone that says the word "proprietary" or "custom designed" needs to be smacked in the face without hesitation and the word "NO" yelled in their face.
Step 3 - Fire everyone in the Printer driver division. IF the driver is not a simple small single file then it's garbage. No I dont want to install 160meg of helpers. Nobody does.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
I have a feeling the bean counters have taken over completely at HP. Engineers are a cost center. Get rid of engineers. Software developers are a cost center. Get rid of software developers. Since no one in the US is willing to work for 7 cents per hour, all manufacturing takes place in China. Sell the buildings that used to contain engineers and software developers. HP will then consist of CXO's on the top floor of one building, with the next floor dedicated to bean counters, and the main floor for overseas operations (bean counters never consider themselves to be a cost center). Its easier to outsource operations, so the overseas operations will be 'rent-a-plant', and since that also includes 'rent-an-engineer', everything but the head office will be overseas. Next to go is the bottom floor. Sell to the overseas manufacturer, give the top two floors a cushy severance, and wind that baby down. Its not like Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard are around anymore. The founding engineers are gone. The glory days of the company were when the founders founded it, and ran it for the first 20 years. The next 20 years saw growth, but not quite so much glory for new hires. The next 20 years saw new managers come in when the founding engineers retired but oversaw things. Things got more corporate. Still an ok company to work for, but not great. The founders die, more management changes (bean counters take over). Bill Hewlett died in 2001, David Packard died in 1996. What Bill and Dave started, Carly and others have done a great job killing. I give them at the outside 10 more years, but something in my head says they will be dead in less than 5. HP joins Sun.
Cringely saw this one coming a long time away... ok, maybe 7 months isn't so long:
http://www.cringely.com/2011/02/why-leo-apotheker-will-be-fired-from-hewlett-packard/
is the board.
Granted, this would probably leave only a handful of posts.
Don't complain about syntax, grammar, or spelling. There is no.hell like input on android.
Does HP really want to give up that long-term cash flow to go chase its dreams?
In a word, yes. In three words, oh hell yes.
PC hardware is a commodity market and it's a mess. The upside that anyone can build a PC these days is a double edged sword, because just about anyone can build a PC these days, and the ones that do it the cheapest are the ones who win out. Margins are razor thin. High end desktops are a rare purchase. Mid-range desktops are only sold mostly to businesses when they don't need a laptop. Laptops are losing out to iPads and Macbooks now, which are solid alternatives at comparable prices, AND have better quality on average. HP is not making gobs and gobs of profit on hardware, only Apple, Samsung and HTC seem to be able to do that at the moment. Sure they might bring in $100 million in revenue but it cost like $99 million to make that. The numbers are exaggerated of course but the point is that HP sees that their hardware business is not making as much profit as you think, and it's the profit that's important.
Look, IBM created the PC and it was their cash cow for years. They then established a business consulting branch to encourage people to buy their machines. Then Compaq came along and ate their lunch, and suddenly their cash cow went away. One day, someone realized "holy shit! Our consultants make more money than our hardware does. All we do is contract out the manufacturing work to some other bozo anyway, let's sell hardware and make consulting our new cash cow, and simply tell them to buy whatever hardware we feel like."
What's funny is when IBM did this, similar things happened economically then that are happening now. 2001, the dotcom bubble bursts, 3 years later IBM sells it's hardware to work business to business. 2008, housing market crashes and 3 years later, HP gets out of hardware. In both situations, the average household consumer is hit hard and hurting, median middle class wages are practically stagnant and not keeping up with inflation, but corporate profits continue to rise in both instances.
Follow the money, the money is in businesses paying businesses for business consulting to run their business more. Huge international companies selling to average consumers is folly compared to selling to business these days especially when all the money is in corporations and rich people's pockets (that's not some political slogan, that's just the truth). Sure HP could keep it's hardware, it's probably still profitable over all, but why work so hard at making a little money when you could work half as hard and still make a killing in business consulting?
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
Sure, you can make the figures look good in the short term by slashing R&D and firing everybody, but in the longer run you have no new products coming down the line.
Bye bye HP. In ten years time you'll be a niche printer ink seller.
An example. Around 25 years ago, where I live, a farmer built a golf course on his land.
He made quite a lot of money, quite fast.
A few other farmers thought golf clubs were a good idea, and persuaded people to invest in them
For some reason, they didn't make much money. But other farmers saw the golf clubs and still thought it looked like easy money.
They built golf clubs.
Pretty soon some of the golf clubs were closing, and the early profitable ones didn't make much money any more.
I wonder why? Oh, it turns out that there is only a certain amount of demand for golf. When everyone can afford to play it, it has no social status any more.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
I think it's more likely that Apotheker is just incompetent as a CEO, and he made mistakes.
His incentives are at least somewhat aligned with those of the company. He is paid primarily in options. If HP makes a big profit then his options are worth a lot, he makes tons of money, he is seen as a successful CEO, he continues on in his powerful role, etc.
How does it help his vanity, or power, or personal aggrandisement, to make these silly decisions and then be fired from HP for failing to increase its profits?
Eh, the Palo Alto "HQ" is a shell of a building. I was over there a couple of years ago, and in one long-abandoned cubicle area of the building, they hadn't even cleaned up the coffee cup on one guy's desk. Apparently, coffee left on its own for a few years transforms into a kind of glue. You could hold it upside down, and the spoon wouldn't drop out. It was like a freaky episode of the Twilight Zone.
The buildings that were in heavy use were all in Cupertino.
Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.