HP fires Carly Fiorina

Carly is out! Not many details about what exactly sparked this to happen today (or well, yesterday), but there's been a boardroom coup at HP, and CEO and Chairman Carly Fiorina has been ousted, effective immediately. Could mean some very big changes for HP's direction, including even possibly that breakup of the company some people have been hinting at (though we have no confirmation right now as to why she was fired). We'll keep you posted.

[Thanks, Ben]

[Joe @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

best wishes to you, carly

[Sergio @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

Yikes!

I just saw a magazine at Borders yesterday with her on the cover and commenting on HP's troubles.

[eric @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

awesome. i've always loved hp's printers/computers, but they've been going downhill ever since allying with apple.

[fabienne @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

whoa whoa whoa!
best of luck to her!
ack for hp.

[Brian @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

You can read more about it on CNN/Money:

http://money.cnn.com/2005/02/09/technology/hp_fiorina/index.htm?cnn=yes

[TheZodiac @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

HP sucks anyway. Now they really blow.

[Stuart Cowen @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

What a blow! She did great things for HP and their product line was earning mine and my friends' dollars. The whole "Invent" brand was greatness. Whe will be missed.

[Mark @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

To number 3, I hope you're kidding. They've been going downhill since they allied with Apple? How does producing HP branded iPods affect their PC division? They have been going downhill, in my opinion, since before Apple rolled out the first iPod. I've never had much luck with HP products except their printers.

[Tim K. @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

Steve Jobs should grab her now. HP was shaping up to be a little silent ally of Apple's in 2004 (although I guess those HP iPods kinda fell through). Her experience in the Wintel world might help Apple to take advantage of that foot in the door of the PC market known as ' The Mac Mini '

[Geoffrey Sperl @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

Eric: Interesting comment. I agree... HP has been going downhil ever since it started dealing with Apple.

Of course, that's been for almost 16 years now. HP used to supply the engines for Apple's LaserWriter printers, which first saw the light of day back in 1988/1989.

The purchase of Digital was a bad idea, the purchase of Compaq was a bad idea, and not following through on the company break-up (computing, printers, medical equipment) was even more of a bad idea.

HP's trouble started in the mid-90's, Eric. Apple has nothing to do with HP's self-destructive behaviors from that time forward (they had their own mid-90's self-destructive behaviors to take care of).

[Larry @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

One can debate the value of the Compaq acquisition, but HP had nothing to do with the purchase of Digital... Compaq did that, long before HP acquired them.

[Minuk @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

Well I think the obvious reason why she got fired is that HP wasn't making enough profit for shareholders. I think the biggest problem with HP's strategy was that it spread itself too thin -- buying Compaq, trying to compete with Dell in PC hardware, and selling re-branded ipods.

What they should have done is build on their bread-and-butter: printers and servers. HP still has a stronghold on the printer market, and Compaq used to have a firm hold on the high-end server market. Dell and IBM have entered the server markets and effectively outcompeted HP/Compaq out of main contender spot.

Of course, all of HP's problems can't be pinpointed on Fiorina -- but when shareholders aren't happy, the board start getting ants in their pants and do whatever they can to shake things up.

[Aaron G. @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

It's pretty obvious to me that the reason she was fired is because she is made of pure evil, and HP is no longer trying to ally itself with Satan. Rather, I believe they legitimately want to shift their focus to producing some quality products that aren't cheaply made and ugly to behold. Only time will tell. Until that time, I will continue to refer to them as "the company that sells crap to my friends who don't know any better, who in turn ask me to fix everything that's wrong with their ugly grey machines."

[Marcelo @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

I say, good riddance. For all the "good" you might think Carly did, her draconian views on outsourcing far outweigh any benefit she might've made for the company. Now that she's left HP, I may purchase HP products again. I personally didn't want to contribute to anyone's bottom line who has such backward views on employment rights.

I certainly hope Apple doesn't hire her, otherwise I may have to put off that PowerMac purchase I've been saving up for, indefinitely. I won't financially support any company she works for ( at least not knowingly ). Yeah, it may sound silly, but I'm tired of so many jobs leaving the country, and someone as high profile as her gave outsourcing an "air" of credibility it doesn't merit.

Enjoy the vacation Carly...don't be in a rush to get back into the industry.

[Fine James @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

Ding Dong the witch is dead!!

[bc @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

never purchase any hp products... simply to expensive to run/own. take their printers for instance (cost of ink=$$$). Dell beat hp/compaq in market share even after they combined...crazy. bubye lady.

[aleandro @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

...this is funny the technology world is reshaping itself. I wonder who is next...
I don't beleive in splitting up focusing on the printing and medical business should help while they are reinvinting themselves of the pc market. For the guys that are hoping that apple will ever be a major player in the mass pc market you are wrong. For that to happen they would have to lose their brand name as the high end which I doubt they are ready to loose.

[Johnny Server Guy @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

The PC business has not made decent margins for any US manufacturer in five years except for Dell. Dell's advantage is operational related to vertical integration (and selling TV's a la Gateway). The iPod story is also about vertical integration.

I believe HP has fallen furthest and past the point of no return in the enterprise server market. Beside the printing/paper business, the server business contributes the most profit margin.

No one is interested in paying for HPUX, which runs the big machines, anymore, thanks to Linux. PA-RISC is obselete. Being too heavily reliant upon and aligned with Intel and the Itanium disaster for high-perf 64-bit was a big mistake. AMD Opteron "white boxes" are killing mostly due to late-to-market AMD-machine offerings by HP/Compaq.

Ditto the above for SUN. Java is SUN's only hope for increasing value.

[Mike @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

She must be one incredibly smart and talented woman to have gotten to where she is. I salute her. I wish there were more like her. I doubt she really deserves this. CEOs are lightning rods for criticism. And the worst thing about it is, it's just going to feed so many men's small-minded bigotry about women not being able to handle big jobs. I'm already dreading the first comment like that I'll hear. It makes me sad to be a man.

[crsh @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

the power bitch from hell did inherit the ungrateful job of merging compaq to hp, and while it wasn't a total disaster (the idea of the merge was a mislead project to begin with), hp is now a boring, half-paralysed giant that offers zero innovation, provides mediocre products, and has zero effective vision for the future.

fiorina has always made an impression of a CEO (gender is irrelevant here) who just plays a part in a play she hasn't read yet; comes to think of it, perhaps she was just a puppet?

well it's irrelevant now, good riddance indeed

[ElCapitanAmerica @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

I posted this on slashdot and it bears repeating here;

+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Outsourceress Fiorina in her own words*

"There is no job that is America's God-given right anymore,"

You were right Carly, goodbye.
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------

BTW, I'm shocked, shocked, shocked by the number of positive comments on her at this site. It's incredible, people even recommending Steve Jobs hire her! WTF?!?!

[UncleVisen @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

Here's a thought: For every PC I've worked on the in the last decade, it was the HPs coming to my doorstep that wound up getting replaced and junked. So many years ago people bought the dream, and now they're stuck with the fact that it was only pipe dream. I thought the buyout of Compaq was a terrible idea. Frankly I was hoping they would streamline the two product lines and we'd see a quality increase. Not likely. Carly may not have been the problem (though she wasn't part of the solution, clearly), but her removal may "Invent" new hope for the company.

My ol' DeskWriter 510 survived nearly a decade before I junked it... she managed to create an in-road for outsourced junk. Bravo! Though honestly people - she's complying to demand, even if her methods aren't ethical. Really want to put a kibosh on outsourcing? Don't buy that $80 printer! Do your research and find something local!

But we all know that'll never happen...

[Whiplash @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

Is it me or she kinda hot? I mean, not in a "great body, nice face" kinda hot... but more of a "damn for a Ferarri and big ol' house, I'd bang her silly" kind of hot. You know?

[cmlp @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

Hmm, maybe now they'll start making decent calculators again.

[Marshall Clow @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

> Eric: Interesting comment. I agree... HP has been going downhill
> ever since it started dealing with Apple.

> Of course, that's been for almost 16 years now. HP used to supply
> the engines for Apple's LaserWriter printers, which first saw the
> light of day back in 1988/1989.

Geoff --
Apple shipped their first LaserWriter in 1985. It (and subsequent LW models) all used Canon engines (just like HP used in their LaserJets). AFAIK, Apple never bought engines from HP.

[IstariAsuka @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

"Hmm, maybe now they'll start making decent calculators again."

Well, I have to say that other than the flaky keypad, the 49G+ is pretty awesome. It is annoying, but you learn how to punch the buttons so that is doesn't happen often. Besides, it's so much better than the ol' TIs I used to use that it's well worth it.

Anyways, my dad used to work for HP, for some 19 or so years, and many of his friends did/still do. All of them seem to agree that Carly served only to take HP into a far worse position that it was already in. It wasn't great before, but she totally wrecked the company, according to actual HP employees.

[Carmi @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

I'm not surprised at Ms. Fiorina's ouster from HP. I AM surprised by how long it took the board to do the dirty deed. If they had vision, they would have given her the time to pull it out. If they had vision, they would have recognized that she had no ability to control the state of the industry. Once again, the captain dies by the sword because, well, she's the captain.

It is indeed an unfortunate end to what could have been a great story. But she gave it a great go and inspired a lot of people along the way.

Rather pathetic is the litany of moronic posts in this comment thread. Clearly some participants in this process have little to do but wag their tongues and speak derisively of someone who on her worst day would outperform, outrank and outshine any one of you so-called "experts".

Carmi
http://writteninc.blogspot.com

[ElCapitanAmerica @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

#27

> But she gave it a great go and inspired a lot of people along the way.

She inspired who? All the countless people she herself got rid of and constantly rubbed it in their face? Or did she inspire all the ex HP customers who got out of that boat faster than the rats?

Please tell me what we're supposed to be inspired by, this person isn't even likable!

> Clearly some participants in this process have little to do but wag their tongues and speak derisively of someone who on her worst day would outperform, outrank and outshine any one of you so-called "experts".

You know, there's very few people I can think of that could have done a worse job than Carly these past years while she worked for HP. Maybe she's better than some of the "Apprentice" contestants, but not by that much really.

I can't wait for Fiorina to run for office and see how miserably she fails, God knows that her political career might be another disaster that's interesting to watch.

Carly, is that you posting?

[Kyo @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

I gotta say, I respect Carly - I think she's done some pretty gutsy things. You wouldn't want to go up against her one on one, I bet. For all your bravado, no one gets to the top position like she did unless she's got a reasonable amount of logic and business acumen.

I did, however, think that HP's decision (and I guess with her approval) to drop support for previous iPAQ Pocket PCs' ability to continuously upgrade their units (PPC 2003SE) was a really stupid move to make. There's an online petition with 14,000 people who've signed it who think it was a silly idea and who won't be sorry to see her go because of it. Support the customers who put you there, because if you don't - you've just made your biggest mistake. In my opinion, that's where HP lost me.

[Sean @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

Got to say I'm happy about this, HP seemed to be going downhill, and as a 56x user, I've never forgiven her for killing the jornada.

[acidreflux @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing Wiplash.

[ElCapitanAmerica @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

#29

> You wouldn't want to go up against her one on one, I bet.

Any fool could have made HP more money than Carly. All they had to do is say, reduce their salaray to say 1 million a year instead of the 10s of millions she was getting paid in cash and options. You lock the office and don't make a single decision, and chances are, you would have ended up making the company more money.

For sure, we know a monkey wouldn't have decided to merge HP/Compaq, so even a monkey might have perfomed better.

As for going one on one against her? Well, if I had to answer trivia about Medieval history, I guarantee you that she'd beat me. I don't have a degree in Medieval history as she does.

I'm sure she loved the pillaging course, because she sure did that to the thousands of employess she got rid off while filling up her pockets. All the while, company value dropped down! Nice job Carly, you sure a "tought".

[LaserBeams @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

I'm surprised at the number of positive comments on here, as well. Good riddance. I'm glad she's gone. Hopefully HP printers will get better again.

[Johnny Server Guy @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

The PC business has not made decent margins for any US manufacturer in five years except for Dell. Dell's advantage is operational related to vertical integration (and selling TV's a la Gateway). The iPod story is also about vertical integration.

I believe HP has fallen furthest and past the point of no return in the enterprise server market. Beside the printing/paper business, the server business contributes the most profit margin.

No one is interested in paying for HPUX, which runs the big machines, anymore, thanks to Linux. PA-RISC is obselete. Being too heavily reliant upon and aligned with Intel and the Itanium disaster for high-perf 64-bit was a big mistake. AMD Opteron "white boxes" are killing mostly due to late-to-market AMD-machine offerings by HP/Compaq.

Ditto the above for SUN. Java is SUN's only hope for increasing value.

[Andrew @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

This is all down to Martha getting released. I bet free cook books with pc's.

[Tim @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

Where do you get your information from, Carmi. All the anonymous HP postings I've seen (plus comments from friends of HPers) is that she wasn't popular in the company. People dancing in the offices when your resignation is announced is not a good sign!

She had 5 years running the company, and where some companies picked themselves up post-dotcom, HPs stock price is pretty low.

Who did she inspire? Who, except the drones who read the interviews in business mags that talked her up as the top female CEO.

[Bob @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

What's amazing to me are the morons who can't recognize a snake oil salesman when they see one. I knew five years ago that nothing would come out of her hiring other then a whole lot of firing with her as the last one out the door.

This was easily the worst hiring ever instituted by a corporate conglomerate ever. It was as phony as the face behind it. Ms. Fiorina was a perfect example of style before substance and of substance she offered very little.

I have no connection to HP at all but I'm gratified that HP's employees no longer have to put up with such an arrogant and egotistical con job as this woman who never proved herself as a CEO before coming to HP. She's gone because she never deserved the position in the first place.

She came into a company that was one of the most respected and well-run companies in the world and turned it into her own personal little bathroom where she flushed all tradition, all manner of connecting and communicating with employees and customers and then had the audacity to think that she had nothing to do with the very failures she herself promoted!

HP, a company that made the greatest calculators ever produced, the best printers ever produced, the best medical devices ever invented and a list of products so long that it would take a day to post them all has now been demoted to nothing but just another producer of low to medium quality PCs that people can buy a dime a dozen.

I hope executive America thinks long and hard before they try another Affirmative Action hiring in such an important position because that's all this amounted to.

[mobile.admin @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

I think that if anyone lacks vision, it's the directors. Obviously, whoever works as the CEO works for them and can be fired as will when things go wrong. If Carly was a bad choice for the position (knowing the way she operates, which she reportedly has not deviated from) then they are the ones to blame, really. You really can't rely on a fireable employee to give you direction; a well-paid employees foremost concern is how to keep her job :-P