> Hewlett Packard Co-chairman Ray Lane has stepped down from his position at the company, and is taking two other board members with him. Lane is leaving following a narrow re-election, and G. Kennedy Thompson and John Hammergren, also both elected by a close margin are departing as well. All three are departing in part due to their roles in the Autonomy acquisition scandal that rocked the company in 2012.
I would say the walls are starting to crumble, but I think that started years ago.
> “Dell has a very tough road ahead. The company faces an extended period of uncertainty and transition that will not be good for its customers. And with a significant debt load, Dell’s ability to invest in new products and services will be extremely limited. Leveraged buyouts tend to leave existing customers and innovation at the curb. We believe Dell’s customers will now be eager to explore alternatives, and HP plans to take full advantage of that opportunity.”
That’s cold.
Todd Bradley, the head of HP’s PC business:
> “I’d hardly call Surface competition,” Bradley said in an interview with IDG Enterprise. He listed several reasons, “One, very limited distribution. It tends to be slow and a little kludgey as you use it …. It’s expensive. Holistically, the press has made a bigger deal out of Surface than what the world has chosen to believe.”
This coming from one of Microsoft’s partners.
The company will take an $8 billion charge in the third quarter related to that $14 billion merger, and including the massive writeoff, HP expects to report a loss of as much as $4.49 per share, or approximately $8.85 billion.
A brutal assessment.