What do you call someone who left his last CEO post abruptly, after a short stint marked by customer unrest and low employee morale? The answer: Leo Apotheker, the new chief executive of Hewlett-Packard Co.
The H-P board, still reeling from former CEO Mark Hurd's scandalous exit and subsequent defection to Oracle Corp., chose Apotheker over several internal candidates rather quickly.
As H-P makes a push into software and services, Apotheker's 20 years at German software giant SAP couldn't have hurt his candidacy. Yet his brief tenure at SAP's helm was known mostly for a customer backlash after the company raised customer fees in the midst of a recession. And his own chairman accused him of leaving behind a demoralized work force.
For H-P employees, will this be a bad flashback to the grim times of Carly Fiorina or the banner days of Mark Hurd (er, before that sex-scandal thing)? One thing is certain -- Apotheker will be the most watched CEO in Silicon Valley since...Mark Hurd. (WSJ)
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The beleaguered online media giant, presumably tired of media leaks after a long line of executive departures, announces three more executive departures.
Less Taste for Chips (CNET)
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No Privacy for Penguins (Gizmodo)
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Write to Sindhu Sundar
