Hewlett-Packard has announced that former Verizon Wireless SVP and CIO John Hinshaw has agreed to join the company to serve as its executive vice president of Global Technology and Business Processes, a newly created position.
Hinshaw most recently worked at The Boeing Company, where he was vice president and general manager of Boeing Information Solutions. His job there involved delivering information solutions to the U.S. government, among other tasks.
He will report to recently appointed HP chief exec Meg Whitman. → Read More
Here’s one to file under “completely unexpected” — remember HP’s long-dead TouchPad? Well, apparently it’s got some life it in yet, as Best Buy will be allowing their customers to purchase a 32GB model for $149 so long as they buy an HP computer at the same time.
The deal starts on November 1, and I suspect Best Buy and HP will be hyping it like crazy next week. This whole thing begs a far bigger question though: where the hell are these things coming from? → Read More
HP caused a minor uproar when it announced just prior to Leo Apotheker’s departure that it was considering splitting off its PC division. Well, after two months of internal debating, the Personal Systems Group will remain part of the company and Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard can rest in peace.
The news comes from a just-issued press release where HP’s new chief MG Whitman indicated that it’s best for customers, partners, shareholders and employees to keep the PSG within HP. She goes on to say that “HP is committed to PSG, and together we are stronger.” → Read More
HP has just announced that its executive vice president and chief strategy and technology officer Shane Robison will be retiring, effective Nov. 1.
Robison, an 11-year HP veteran, also served as a member of the company’s Executive Council. In his role, he was responsible for shaping HP’s corporate strategy and technology agenda. He helped lead HP’s research and development and has led many of the company’s largest merger and acquisition activities. HP also announced that it will not be replacing the role of chief strategy and technology officer. → Read More
What’s that noise about living in a post-PC era? The personal computer market is actually growing per a new preliminary Gartner report. The research company found third quarter PC shipments as a whole are up 3.2% over the same period in 2010, totaling 91.8 million units. This number is slightly less than Gartner’s earlier projections and the Western European market is partly to blame. But save Acer and Dell, computer manufacturers increased shipments from a year ago and Lenovo, thanks to several acquisitions and partnerships, overtook Dell and now trails just HP in the worldwide PC marketshare pie. → Read More
Now that HP has sufficiently disgraced the vision of Mssrs. Hewlett and Packard, they continued to gyrate wildly into odd business that no one wants. To wit: in a joint press release with Condé Nast, the company is offering two odd consumer-facing propositions. First, they’re going to charge you $5.99-$10 a month to subscribe to a replacement ink service, called Instant Ink. When your printer runs low, it will send a message to Meg Whitman who will personally ship you a new cartridge. Considering ink cartridges already contain less than $5.99 of ink and parts, it’s a bum deal all around but, also considering HP jacks the prices up on ink enormously, I suppose if you’re mad about printing this may work out. Oddly, I don’t see anyone spending $60-$120 on ink cartridges per printer per year (unless HP jacks up prices even more).
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The “reduction in workforce” telegraphed by HP two weeks ago appears to finally be taking place, according to a source inside the company. Apparently the formal emails have gone out and the entire San Diego Software unit is being rolled up. The number laid off is around 500, which tallies with previous estimates of up to 525.
It’s not much of a surprise, since following the untimely death of the TouchPad and webOS, it was really only a matter of time before the software groups directly responsible for maintaining those products would be eliminated. The jobs are reportedly moving to Shanghai and Yehud, Israel, where HP already has R&D centers. → Read More
The head of HP’s open source initiative, Phil Robb, took umbrage when Touchpad lovers found Android running on some HP Touchpads and clamored for the source code. Robb, who is in charge of handling open source software and distribution for the company, said there was never an Android made for the Touchpad and there is no way it could have shown up on the Touchpads, even through factory error.
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HP just announced that it has completed its takeover of British enterprise data handler Autonomy under the terms specified last month. To wit: £25.50 each for 213,421,299 shares, totaling just over 87% of the company. That’s around $8.5 billion spent of the ~$10 billion offer that would have constituted a total buyout (Reuters says $12 billion).
The purchase price is seen by many as rather an overpayment, but the purchase was one of the keystones in Leo Apotheker’s plan to restructure the company. Apotheker, of course, left the company not long ago just a few weeks ago to make way for the new CEO, Meg Whitman, taking with him some $10 million in stock and bonuses. → Read More
Massive severance packages are nothing new, but sometimes you just feel the need to call attention to them. Ousted HP CEO Leo Apotheker is leaving the company with a $7.2 million severance payment, plus a $2.4 million bonus and $3.7m in stock (more if you count the other 440,000 vested shares). I understand that this high pay is part of our business culture, but really, now.
Is it possible that HP was in a death spiral and only Apotheker’s sound judgment caused them to get away with a mere 45% drop in value? It seems unlikely that they’d kick him to the curb after less than a year if that were the case. → Read More
People love the $99 TouchPad including HP employees. The TouchPad hit the HP’s employee purchasing program yesterday and potential buyers showed up en mass, promptly crashing the servers. It’s unclear how many TouchPads were sold, but my HP source didn’t manage to snag a cheap TouchPad yet. Instead, he received (and forwarded) an email detailing the problem and warning employees not to bother the call center with their woes. “Our site is too slow,” he said. HP might still have TouchPads reserved for employees as he hasn’t received an email stating they’re sold out.
Hopefully after HP takes care of its employees the company will release the last TouchPads to retailers. After the first batch dried up last month, most stores started wait lists after HP announced more were on their way. My daily routine involves checking several retailers’ websites in the hope that I stumble upon an active Buy Now link — apparently a good chunk of HP’s 300,000 employees are doing the same thing right now. → Read More
Meg Whitman just took over as HP’s CEO and President hours ago and she, along with the new executive chairman of the board, Ray Lane, didn’t waste anytime reaching out to their more than 300,000 employees. In the email embedded further down in the post, they reaffirm the statement released earlier today that Meg Whitman has “enormous respect for HP” and indicates that HP matters not only to Silicon Valley, but to California and the United States. The company has a “deep-rooted legacy” and is something they want to maintain and build upon.
They state the obvious in that HP needs to refocused on their mission (although she doesn’t define said mission) and the company is filled with the “industry’s brightest and most talented people.” No mention of bringing back the $99 TouchPad, though. → Read More
Multiple sources are reporting/positing that Meg Whitman, former eBay head, will be sitting in the CEO seat at HP after today’s market close. Current CEO, Leo Apotheker, will get a $35 million pay out and wend his merry way to his next blood-letting.
HP’s stock is not yet reacting to the news although it closed at a 24 last night after futzing around in the 22s for most of yesterday morning.
UPDATE – A tipster writes: “Just had a meeting with our HP Regional Rep and it was disclosed that during morning conference calls HP will be announcing his resignation shortly.”
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Rumor has it that HP isn’t quite happy with Leo Apotheker’s plans for the company and that he may be fired less than a year after taking the job.
As you’ll recall, Apotheker’s background is in SAP and massive business apps and, because when you have a hammer everything looks like a nail, he figured HP could make all sorts of cash selling the same software to businesses while killing and spinning off various parts of their hardware business. → Read More
Gather round, young and old, for our first and last glimpse at the never-to-be-released HP TouchPad Go. The seven incher was supposedly a couple weeks away from shipping when HP decided to send webOS hardware to rest in pieces, but one forum-goer claims to have had one for three months.
From what we already know, which is basically just the information from the tablet’s FCC filing, this seems like the real deal. → Read More
It’s not very often I get to write that it’s a good day to be an HP employee. But it’s also not everyday that HP employees are offered some of the last TouchPads.
The company is set to release a final batch of the $99/$149 HP TouchPads to employees starting September 28th at 9:00am PDT. This is per an email I received from an HP employee (embedded after the jump), which notes TouchPads are available on a first come, first serve basis and employees are only allowed to buy one TouchPad — which some will likely list on ebay where TouchPads are currently selling for over $200. The sun is setting on the TouchPad’s life and HP is likely ready to move forward, thoroughly burned by their venture into the land of the iPad. → Read More
So, you bought an HP TouchPad. No, not the £89 TouchPad — the £399 TouchPad. Understandably, you’re pissed. Well, everything’s going to be okay. HP’s “way of saying thank you for choosing HP webOS” is to compensate customers who paid full price for the TouchPad before August 23.
If you haven’t already noticed from the “Europe” in the headline or the “£” symbol all over the place, this compensation program is only available for our friends across the pond (Germany, France, Northern Ireland and the UK). → Read More
First off, this isn’t what you’re thinking: this scanner doesn’t actually allow you to scan objects in 3D but it allows you to scan physical objects. Think of it as a larger camera. That said, the HP TopShot scanner is clearly a bold move for the beleaguered HP. The $399 MFP prints, copies, and scans and has a special arm that swings up to scan 3D objects. For example, you could place a model on it and “scan” it (really “take a picture of it”) from different angles.
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Gor blimey, Danger Mouse! The Touchpad suddenly appeared at UK retailed PC World for a mere $398, a far cry from the impressive $99 models offered on this side of the pond. → Read More
HP’s PC business may be up in the air right now, but that doesn’t mean we won’t see any more HP notebooks.
The company today announced the updated DM1 ultraportable laptop with a new, fresher look. Starting at $399, the DM1 comes with either an Intel second-gen Core processor or an AMD E-series processor. AMD models will also include AMD Radeon HD discrete graphics. → Read More
