By silicon.com, 21 May 2004 16:10
NEWS 21.05.99: As HP announced plans to redefine itself as an internet services company at its quarterly results briefing in the US, the big question amongst commentators was who was likely to succeed outgoing CEO, Lew Platt.
HP has this week put the final pieces into place to reinvent itself as an internet company. So far, by its own admission, the company's presence in the fast growing web commerce market has been disturbingly lacking.
Current CEO, Lew Platt, has resigned the position, although it remains unclear exactly when he will leave. Speculation about his successor continues, with Anne Livermore, CEO of HP's enterprise computing division, being tipped for the top spot, along with 3Com boss Eric Benhamou.
21.05.04: The speculation was certainly wide of the mark and HP surprised the industry and appointed an outsider in Lucent's Carly Fiorina, who had overseen that company's IPO in 1996 and was rated as America's most powerful business woman by Fortune.
Even HP would now admit that talk of reinventing itself as an 'internet company' was ridiculous and Fiorina embarked on a long programme to build a competitive services business that included the failed $18bn merger with PricewaterhouseCoopers' consulting arm.
After cutting costs by shedding thousands of jobs, Fiorina's attention then turned to the $22bn Compaq merger and the bitter battle with Walter Hewlett to gain shareholder support for the deal. That finally completed in 2002 followed by the carving up of the two companies product lines.
Since then Fiorina has overseen a largely successful integration of the two companies and growth in HP's services business, despite still struggling at times to ditch the image of being a printer and PC manufacturer.
In fact, the company posted record results this week for its most recent quarter with net profit up by 34 per cent to $884m.
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