Léo Apotheker is the new CEO of HP, or at least will be in short order, and it’s a choice we don’t think anybody predicted. He certainly wasn’t on our radar. HP’s board says that Apotheker was the first and only person they offered the job, and according to recent SEC filings, he’s going to be making some serious money ($1.2 million annual salary, $4 million signing bonus, $4.6 million for moving expenses (buh?), and incentive bonuses ranging from 200%-500% of his salary). But just where did he come from, and what does his arrival at HP mean, especially for our favorite little business unit: Palm?

Apotheker is coming to HP off a short stint as CEO of German software monolith SAP. SAP is an enterprise software company, which as Sascha Segan of PC Magazine put it, sells “hideously boring but profitable enterprise software.” Apotheker spent twenty years at SAP, serving as “co-CEO” in 2008, before being elevated to CEO in May 2009. His reign at the top of SAP was not for long, as in February of 2010, the SAP board and Apotheker reached an agreement that saw him leaving the CEO position, the SAP board, and SAP as a company.

Now, you might be thinking, “only seven months and they already forced him to resign?” We were thinking that too, but that’s not what has as most worried. HP is a strong and seriously profitable company – if it turns out that the first and only choice for CEO is a dud, HP will be able to move on to somebody else without skipping a beat. And from what we can deduce from SAP’s carefully worded press releases over the years, Apotheker was dumped into a mess of a company when he took over as singular CEO. Shareholders demanded action, ignoring the fact that every company on the planet was suffering in February of 2010, and so he became the sacrificial lamb to the poor economy.

Here’s what has us concerned: Apotheker is a software guy. Not just a software guy, an enterprise software guy. His focus is selling complicated and expensive software solutions with serious regard to function, but little regard to form, to large firms. Divisions like printers and personal computers and handheld devices (i.e. Palm) have not factored into his management experience.

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HP has announced their new president and CEO: Léo Apotheker. Apotheker comes to HP after serving as the CEO for SAP, the German company that specializes in enterprise-class applications and software.

Apotheker takes over on November 1st. He’s a surprise pick to us – we guess we’ll see if this man with 20 years of enterprise-class experience can continue HP’s success in the consumer space. If nothing else, this bring the Mark Hurd saga to a close.

Full press release after the break.

Source: Business Wire

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HP is holding its Securities Analyst Meeting 2010 this coming Tuesday, September 28th, 2010, beginning at 1:00 pm PT (and preceded by an "innovation showcase" at 12 noon PT). This is not a standard investor quarterly conference call; this is a full event including 3 1/2 hours of "Executive Presentations," Q&A, and even a reception afterward. While at least one analyst quoted in TheStreet.com doesn’t expect a CEO announcement at the meeting, it will likely be a subject of discussion, as hopefully will be the near future of webOS smartphones and devices.

The complete agenda for the event, and instructions on how to tune into the Webcast, are available in the Investor Relations section of HP’s Web site. We will certainly be keeping an ear out for any announcements or even veiled hints relevant to our community, so watch the site on Tuesday.

Source: The Street.com (Thanks to ilovedessert in our forum for the heads-up!)

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It seems that HP and Oracle have kissed and made up, with HP now okay with former CEO Mark Hurd taking a position as Co-President at Oracle. While neither party is releasing the details of the settlement, HP said in a statement that “Mr. Hurd will adhere to his obligations to protect HP’s confidential information while delivering the best products and solutions to their more than 140,000 shared customers.” Considering that HP and Oracle have been working together for more than 25 years, it’s little surprise that cooler heads prevails in the boardrooms. And Larry Ellison said there was no way we could still get along.

UPDATE: The Associate Press notes that the agreement between Hurd and HP was also contingent upon HP getting their money back. Hurd received approximately $30 million in severance pay and options, which he will be returning to HP. Hurd took advantage of the newfound goodwill by taking the stage at Oracle’s annual conference to show off a new server the company was debuting.

Source: Business Wire, MSNBC; Via: Engadget

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At the end of last week, we saw dueling rumors regarding the likeliest successors to HP’s recently ousted CEO Mark Hurd. First came a brief (and we’d say very sketchy) item on Benzinga that HP had offered the job to Tim Cook, Apple Computer’s chief operating officer. Quick on the heels of that story came a much more detailed article from BusinessWeek that HP’s board was in fact leaning toward an internal candidate rather than someone from outside the company. According to BusinessWeek, while HP’s CFO Cathie Lesjak, who has been serving as interim CEO since Hurd left, does not wish to be considered, five other HP executives are being discussed: 

The short list includes Vyomesh Joshi, who runs HP’s printer business; Todd Bradley, head of the personal-computer division; Dave Donatelli, who runs the storage and server unit; Tom Hogan, executive vice president of enterprise sales and marketing; and Ann Livermore, executive vice president of the enterprise business, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private and a choice hasn’t been made.

The piece also suggested that the decision could be announced this week, and noted that hiring from within could avoid some of the legal issues involving other companies’ employment contracts (the type of dispute that, for example, HP is involved with now over Hurd’s firing and rapid hiring by Oracle).

One final note about HP’s reported insider short list: Todd Bradley is not just the "head of the personal-computer unit," but more specifically the Executive Vice President for HP’s Personal Systems Group, which includes Palm, and a former Palm executive in his own right. Should he get the nod from HP’s board, it may mean an even brighter future for Palm within HP.

Sources: Benzinga, BusinessWeek; Thanks to crg28 in our forum!

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You’ve undoubtedly been keeping up with the saga that’s resulted from the forced resignation of HP’s CEO Mark Hurd by the company’s board, so you know that the world’s largest tech company by revenue is actively seeking to fill the top seat.  To that end, the company has hired executive search firm Spencer Stuart to lead its efforts in considering both internal and external candidates (Jon Rubinstein, anyone?) for the top job, joining the already established search committee that claims board members Marc Andreessen, Laurence Babbio Jr and Joel Hyatt as members.  

Analysts venture that possible candidates include former PalmOne CEO and current HP Personal Systems Chief Todd Bradly (a name that should be familiar  to PreCentral readers), IBM’s Steve Mills and Motorola’s Greg Brown.  Those same analysts predict that a new chief may already be on board by the time HP holds an analyst meeting in September, which could make this search uncharacteristically short.

The above my have (understandably) caused your eyes to glaze over, but there is relevance to those interested in all things Palm:  whoever steps into the role of CEO has a tremendous amount of  influence in the strategic direction of the company, and it would behoove of them to hire someone who understands the importance of the smartphone market.

Source: HP

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HP’s CEO, Mark Hurd, is resigning in the midst of a sexual harassment investigation. Fortunately, HP has an interim CEO lined up:

The Board has appointed CFO Cathie Lesjak, 51, as CEO on an interim basis. Lesjak is a 24-year veteran of the company who has served as HP’s CFO and as a member of the company’s Executive Council since January 2007. She oversees all company financial matters and will retain her CFO responsibilities during the interim period.

HP notes that "there was no violation of HP’s sexual harassment policy, but did find violations of HP’s Standards of Business Conduct." On a conference call, HP said that Hurd submitted inaccurate expense reports to cover up his relationship with a contractor.  

There’s a search committee that has been put together and they’re conducting a search process "as quickly as they can to find the right individual for the position."

Nilay Patel of Engadget asks if Jon Rubinstein will be included in the search. HP replies that they’ll look internally and externally, but won’t comment on specific individuals.

Source: HP call, PR Newswire; via Engadget

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Former Palm CEO Donna Dubinsky has an opinion piece in Silicon Valley based MercuryNews where she looks back over Palm’s history as a company and as an innovator since its inception in 1992, and looks forward to Palm’s next phase as a subsidiary of Hewlett-Packard.  

Dubinsky, who co-founded Palm with Jeff Hawkins, ruminates about Palm’s "seven lives" by looking at its history as an independent company and as a subsidiary of several companys, about Jeff Hawkin’s vision of Handhelds being the next seachange in computing before there were lithium-ion batteries, low powered processors, and even much of a public internet, and looks forward to Palm’s impact on the mobile computing space in its new role at HP.

She goes on to cite numerous breakthroughs and innovations that came from Palm, including one of the first mobile browsers that could view most webpages in a satisfactory fashion, a large-display hand-held computer with no keyboard and many more.  She also cites the reason for such a long and varied track record of innovation: great people and a great culture.  (This is an area where HP clearly agrees with Dubinsky, as Palm will function as a simi-autonomous business unit inside of the tech behemoth.)

Hit the source link for the full article, it’s a good read.

Source: MercuryNews; thanks to Isaac for the tip!

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Sending an email to Apple CEO Steve Jobs is all the rage these days, so a couple enterprising PreCentral readers thought they’d email HP CEO Mark Hurd regarding his, erm, lack of emphasis on smartphones in HP’s ecosystem. We can’t say that what they received back came from Hurd himself (in point of fact, the "CEO Customer Relations" signature suggests otherwise), but given that HP’s official statement on the issue hasn’t quite calmed everybody down, we figured we’d let you know what the line from the top sounds like:

When we look at the market, we see an array of interconnected devices, including tablets, printers and,of course, smartphones. We believe webOS can become the backbone for many of HP’s small form factor devises [sic], and we expect to expand weOS’s footprint beyond just the smartphone market, all while leveraging our financial strenght [sic], scale and global reach to grow in smartphones.

In other words, it sounds exactly like HP’s official statement on the matter, excepting a few strangely persistent typos in the copy sent to both our readers.  Kudos to HP for consistency and given that the buyout hasn’t yet been completed, we can’t blame them for staying on message.

Of course, given our near-unshakable belief that webOS would rock on beefier hardware, the message we’re hoping to hear and right-quick is that we’ll see some iPhone 4 (or at least EVO 4G)-calibre hardware in the near future.

Thanks LateNiteWithJme and 2ForTheRoad!

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HP’s CEO Mark Hurd spoke today at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Technology conference and his words may bode ill for those hoping HP will help catapult Palm and webOS back into the thick of the smartphone battle.

Hurd reportedly said that HP isn’t going to ’spend billions of dollars trying to get into the smartphone business; that doesn’t in any way make any sense.’

To add insult to smartphone injury, Hurd continued ‘We didn’t buy Palm to be in the smartphone business. And I tell people that, but it doesn’t seem to resonate well.’ 

We assume that by ‘not resonating well’ Hurd simply means that the message he’s trying to get across isn’t being heard. That message: HP seems most interested in using webOS on ‘tens of millions of HP small form factor web-connnected devices.’ That confirmed what we already knew, that HP is thinking ‘bigger’ about what kinds of devices they want to use webOS on. We are also confident that HP’s love affair with the idea of putting webOS on a tablet will happen. But this sudden disdain for smartphones gives us some serious pause – ’cause smartphones are what we love and giving that market short-shrift hardly seems like doubling-down on webOS.

No need to panic just yet, webOS-faithful, but it’s starting to look like HP doesn’t share our conviction that a decent foothold in the smartphone space is a prerequisite for building the developer and platform ecosystem necessary to make any mobile OS a success.

Maybe the reason Hurd’s message isn’t ‘resonating’ is because the idea of HP abandoning webOS smartphones is so off-key that people don’t want to hear it?

Source: Between the Lines on ZDNet, thanks to Bob for the tip!

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