UPDATED!
Palo Alto, Calif.
– The Meg Whitman era has begun at Hewlett-Packard, with the embattled company
naming her president/CEO.
The announcement
came as soon as the financial markets closed in New York this afternoon.
In addition, Ray
Lane has moved from non-executive chairman to executive chairman, and the board
intends to appoint a lead independent director promptly.
“These leadership
appointments are effective immediately and follow the decision that Leo
Apotheker step down as president and chief executive officer and resign as a
director of the company,” HP said in a statement.
Apotheker was CEO
of HP since Nov. 1, 2010, and the stock reportedly went down more than 40
percent since that time.
So far HP’s decisions to exit the PC,
tablet and WebOS businesses may still happen. Whitman, in a conference
call an hour after the announcement, said the “strategy of Aug. 18 was
right,” and that the current management plan includes the spinoff of the
Personal Systems Group, its PC business.
She noted, “We expect the
board to make a determination by the end of the quarter.” And she noted
that the plan still includes to “investigate options to recognize the
value of webOS software.”
