Fiorina Departs While HP Returns to Status Quo

Carly Fiorina The news wires have been abuzz today with stories and reports of Carly Fiorina‘s abrupt departure from technology behemoth Hewlett-Packard. She has been a high-profile CEO since her arrival in 1999, and was the chief architect of HP’s merger with Compaq in 2002. However, since that merger, Fiorina has been revered as an ineffective CEO, and HP’s internal financial analysts contend that Compaq’s addition to the HP business model has dragged profits down and prevented the company from being as nimble as the board of directors believes it should be. Such an accusation is interesting unto itself, as Ms. Fiorina delivered the keynote address by invitation at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in early January, an event that is recognized around the world as the showcase for new and cutting-edge technology innovations. (And I’m not the only one who thinks HP is well respected.)

The press release this morning stated

“The board of directors of Hewlett-Packard Company today announced that Carleton S. Fiorina has stepped down as chairman and chief executive officer, effective immediately. Robert P. Wayman, HP’s chief financial officer, has been named chief executive officer on an interim basis and appointed to the board of directors. Patricia C. Dunn, an HP director since 1998, has been named non-executive chairman of the board, also effective immediately.”

But the truth is, she didn’t “step down” as the press release casually states. The word from Wall Street is that she was forced to resign after a series of disagreements over objectives and strategies for making HP a better competitor in its core technology markets. Fiorina said in a statement this morning, “while I regret the board and I have differences about how to execute HP’s strategy, I respect their decision.” What is even more interesting is who is replacing her on an interim basis — Robert Wayman. Mr. Wayman is someone who has never liked Ms. Fiorina, and actually stepped down from the board in 2002, shortly after the Compaq deal was approved. Lo and behold, he is now the interim CEO, enabling HP to return to its old ways, and Fiorina is sent home with a $21 million severance package.

Happy Birthday, Everyone

Birthday Candles 1564 – Christopher Marlowe, playwright (d. 1593)
1665 – Queen Anne I of the United Kingdom (d. 1714)
1748 – Adam Weishaupt, founder of the Illuminati (d. 1811)
1756 – Aaron Burr, Vice President of the United States (d. 1836)
1895 – Babe Ruth, Baseball Hall of Famer (d. 1948)
1911 – Ronald Reagan, 40th President of the United States (d. 2004)
1912 – Eva Braun, Adolf Hitler’s mistress (d. 1945)
1913 – Mary Leakey, anthropologist (d. 1996)
1914 – Thurl Ravenscroft, voice-over actor (“Tony the Tiger”)
1917 – Zsa Zsa Gabor, actress
1931 – Rip Torn, actor, director
1940 – Tom Brokaw, news anchorman
1945 – Bob Marley, Jamaican roots rock reggae singer and musician, (d. 1981)
1950 – Natalie Cole, singer
1951 РPrincess Daphn̩ of Belgium
1957 – Kathy Najimy, actress, comedian
1957 – Robert Townsend, comedian, actor, director, producer
1962 – Axl Rose, musician (“Guns N’Roses”)

And Massachusetts (my home state) became the sixth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution in 1788. Thanks to Wikipedia for the dates and references.

Phreakin’ Phil

Phil - Groundhog Day 2005 Curse you, Punxsutawney Phil! The “Prognosticator of Prognosticators” was rudely awoken this morning and, most likely out of spite, predicted six more weeks of winter. Granted, there are always six more weeks of winter from this point forward, but it’s fun to blame the cold and snow on something else. Especially if that something else is a marmot.

Tonight is the State of the Union speech by our beloved monkey president, which means that I’ll most likely catch the first twenty minutes and then tape the rest. In my opinion, the Daily Show with Jon Stewart coverage of the speech should be much more interesting than the speech itself. As a matter of fact, the Daily Show coverage of January’s inauguration speech was absolutely hysterical and served as a counterbalance to a speech that has been deemed a “vacuous … sermon” by Zbigniew Brzezinski from the PBS Newshour.

I’ll stop yapping now. I’m a Democrat who needs to mourn the loss and move on!

Before I forget, a new Red Sox Blog popped up today, and it happens to be a really good read. I recommend checking it out and taking a look at the photos that I (shameless plug) coincidentally took.

The Realm of the Blog

Global Communication Network I was thinking about the whole concept of blogging the other day and how it is such a far-reaching technology. Before you comment on how much free time I must have, I’ll preface my brain dump with an article that I was reading about last November’s election. One analyst mentioned that the blog enabled candidates and their teams to do “front-line” reporting and provide up-to-the-minute news and analysis to anyone who was willing to read it. Rather impressive when you realize that the concept of blogging has been around for more than eight years, but only widely used within the past two.

Not only is blogging the new pasttime for anyone and everyone with something to say, it is also a growing technology for building user communities and establishing connections worldwide. Take, for example, the concept of Technorati. This is a web application whose purpose is to connect readers to others based on similar interests or categories. Pretty impressive, and definitely sitting in the front car of the idea train. There are other sites devoted to tracking blogs, like Blogwise and Blogdex. Heck, there is even a site for figuring out which blogs are geographically near to you based on your global position. And, more interestingly, there is a fake stock market for trading shares of blogs and helping to increase their virtual value. People seem to use and reference these sites – a lot.

Writing in blogs can be so all-consuming. I find myself getting caught up reading other people’s blogs (David, Halley, RSN, FA) and then think, “wow, there are another six to ten million of these out there.” That truly blows my mind.