Is HP being run by idiots or what?!

[kbohip]

I don't know if anyone here has been following the story, but here's what HP has been up to since yesterday.

They announce that they are going to stop selling their tablet that JUST came out on July 1st, while ads are still running for it!

They announce that they are closing WebOS which they just bought 16 months ago for $1.6 billion.

They announce the proposed purchase of some UK software company for $10 billion!

And the icing on the cake? They announce they want to completely exit from the pc business with pretty much no plan or any specifics at all!

All this stupidity sent stockholders scrambling to sell today, dropping the stock price by 20% and therefore hitting a 6 year low.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/hew...dist=afterbell

[zetachi]

LOL just got this email

PC Mall & HP's Endless Summer TouchPad Sweepstakes
Thank you for entering the sweepstakes. Due to HP’s announcement that they will be discontinuing the TouchPad, the Sweepstakes has been cancelled.
One prize of an HP laptop, of equal or greater value, will be awarded in a random drawing from all eligible entries received prior to this announcement. The winner will be announced on our website and notified by PC Mall.

[3dfxrain]

They're better off doing something else I suppose.

[Activate: AMD]

lol wut? I mean, what does HP plan on doing without the PC market while at the same time killing their newly-acquired mobile OS? I guess they still have printers!

complete morans

[Kenward]

They announce the proposed purchase of some UK software company for $10 billion!

That is one way to describe one of the more successful software businesses of the 21st century.

I'm guessing that the person who write that is an American.

Guess what, not all neat technology comes from Silicon Valley.

[Keven]

That is one way to describe one of the more successful software businesses of the 21st century.

I'm guessing that the person who write that is an American.

Guess what, not all neat technology comes from Silicon Valley.

No, but most of it does.

Autonomy does some cool stuff, and they're more than "some UK software company", but no need to lay it on, dude.

[madhatter256]

I just can't come up with any corporate/productivity software that came from the UK off the top of my head.... although I love Psygnosis :P

[kbohip]

That is one way to describe one of the more successful software businesses of the 21st century.

I'm guessing that the person who write that is an American.

Guess what, not all neat technology comes from Silicon Valley.

Elitist....MUCH?

[Keven]

Because of the hit their stock price took, HP is now the cheapest "major" technology company in the world.

This is despite them being the #1 computer manufacturer in the world.

[bmaverick]

HP execs are stupid. Software becomes obsolete the moment the OS changes or something better comes around or the people go in a different flow direction. Software is like Cobal, old Fortran and the like. Good for today, obsolete in the future.

Sure, hardware changes, but that's the neat thing, you can always package it, spec it out and customize it. Software isn't that grand.

The HP founders would scream at this news.

[smoked trout]

HP's One Year Plan

Let's say you were given a year to kill Hewlett-Packard. Here's how you do it:

[kbohip]

HP's One Year Plan

Ouch. About the best thing they can do now is kidnap Steve Jobs and force him to save their company.

[PandaZ3]

I have had my HP laptop nearly Three years without a hickup and would have bought another had I needed a replacement... Not now.

They have really gone into the dirt. Digging a hole so deep in sandy soil, when the sides collapse, no one can save them.

That will give the economy another hit.

[kbohip]

I just don't get it. It's like they are deliberately trying to self sabotage their entire company. Imagine if Toyota came out with news that they are exploring ways to get out of the business of building cars? I'm pretty sure they would lose a lot of customers overnight. Honestly, I'm amazed the leaders at HP would let everyone know they just don't feel like making pc's anymore. It's hard to imagine they can't fathom what news like this will do to their core business.

[Keven]

Well, the HP board apparently agreed with you guys. Leo Apotheker out as CEO, former eBay CEO Meg Whitman in as HP CEO. Pretty shocking. Apotheker was supposed to be their guy after the embarrassment of Mark Hurd. You may remember Meg Whitman as the Republican candidate for the 2010 California governor election. She lost, obviously.