HP’s stock (HPQ) is up 9% following the rumor that HP’s board may dismiss current CEO Leo Apotheker. At the moment, no decision has been made, but under his watch the stock of HP has fallen 45%, which is always a point that the board may use – although the same board did hire him not so long ago… Additionally, he put forward the plan of killing WebOS devices and getting rid of HP computers (Personal Systems Group). The plan has been perceived by many as simply weird, if not “crazy”.
Wall street seems to take the rumor seriously, at least enough to put its money into it. If the stock is of any indication, investors don’t agree with Mr. Apotheker’s vision of HP, which is basically to turn it into a mix of IBM and SAP (basically, be business-oriented and charge lots for recurring software services).
This came at a time where the HP PSG group had come out with their best designs, and had managed a slow, but steady turnaround of their consumer line of products. HP is the largest PC maker in the world by volume. What do you make of all this?