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HP Is Now Two Companies. How Did It Get Here? (cio.com)

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the doubling-the-garage dept.

New submitter joshroberts3388 writes: If Hollywood wanted a script about the inexorable decline of a corporate icon, it might look to Hewlett-Packard for inspiration. Once one of Silicon Valley's most respected companies, HP officially split itself in two on Sunday, betting that the smaller parts will be nimbler and more able to reverse four years of declining sales. HP fell victim to huge shifts in the computer industry that also forced Dell to go private and have knocked IBM on its heels. Pressure from investors compelled it to act. But there are dramatic twists in HP's story, including scandals, a revolving door for CEOs and one of the most ill-fated mergers in tech history, that make HP more than a victim of changing times.

5 of 198 comments (clear)

  1. Failing upwards by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And after buggering up HP so bad as to cause this split, that CEO is now running for president.

    1. Re:Failing upwards by PopeRatzo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      fiorina hasn't been ceo of hp for 10 years

      And notably, during that time zero other companies offered her the CEO position.

      It's not impossible for a single disastrous CEO to bring a company down for a decade.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    2. Re:Failing upwards by interval1066 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      She did leave HP a mess. She was the one to cause a lot of their top engineering talent to walk, she tried to shift HP to a products company with the Compaq acquisition which was a huge boondoggle in the end, and hp's stock price fell 55% under her watch. You don't get fired for doing a good job.

      --
      Python: 'And then suddenly you have a language which says "we're all stuck with whatever the whiniest coder wants".'
  2. Umm, not exactly by JustAnotherOldGuy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "HP fell victim to huge shifts in the computer industry...."

    No, not really.

    What they fell victim to was Carly Fiorina, who skillfully drove a once-vibrant company into the ground and then walked away with millions, laughing at the suckers who got laid off as a result of her ham-handed management.

    It's no secret what ruined HP, and the thing that ruined HP is now running for president of the country. Fortunately she has ZERO chance of ever sitting in the White House, but it's an insult to everyone that this greedy, viscous bitch would dare to present herself as a viable candidate for the most powerful office in the land.

    --
    Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
  3. HPs failure summarized by LostMyBeaver · · Score: 4, Insightful

    HP went to hell in a basket because the board of directors keeps hiring McKinsey style business idiots to run the company. As a result, they by or merge with company after company and with the exception of their 20 year forey into the memristor which even today has yet to happen, they have absolutely no concept of innovation or market leadership. They for lack of a better term are a huge beige box vendor which tries to beige box everything they touch.

    I think the biggest and most impressive effort they've made in a really long time to be part of something bigger was the Itanium processor project with Intel. But sadly, whether it was them, Intel or both, Itanium failed because developers couldn't afford to get one.

    If you look closely at the list of CEOs that HP has had over the past 15 years, every one of them is someone that loves the word "synergize" and was hired by the board of directors to increase the value of their shares with absolutely no respect for the company itself. They probably all hang out on yachts filled with hookers talking about how great HP is without having the first clue as to what HP actually makes.