SAN FRANCISCO -Carly Fiorina's nearly six-year reign at Hewlett-Packard Co. ended yesterday as the company's board forced her out as chief executive, disappointed by her efforts to transform HP from a printer business into a broad-based technology giant. HP shares surged 7 percent.
Board members said they fired Fiorina, one of corporate America's highest ranking female executives, because she failed to execute a planned strategy of slashing costs and boosting revenue as quickly as directors had hoped.
Fiorina had championed the 2002 acquisition of Compaq Computer Corp. despite fierce resistance from shareholders and directors. The board is now looking for better results from the more diversified operation.
While I regret the board and I have differences about how to execute HP's strategy
I respect their decision Fiorina, 50, said in a statement. HP is a great company and I wish all the people of HP much success in the future.
HP shares climbed $1.41 to $21.55 in late morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange, still shy of its 52-week high of $25. Its 52-week low was just above $16 in August.
Dunn said in a conference call with financial analysts that directors of the Palo Alto-based company had been discussing the change for quite some time.
Carly was brought in to catalyze a transformation of HP. She did that in a remarkable fashion and she executed the merger with her management team in a superior fashion
Dunn said. Looking forward
we think the job is very reliant on hands-on execution
and we thought a new set of capabilities was called for.
Fiorina's departure comes after months of speculation that HP needed a major jolt to make it competitive with other technology companies, particularly rivals Dell Inc. and IBM Corp.
17
Archives
The Associated Press
200502101191midsize.jpg
