Last night HP’s Chairman (ex-Oracle Ray Lane) and two of HP’s longest serving non exec directors (John Hammergren and Ken Thompson) resigned from the board. The US ISS had advised shareholders to vote against their reappointment at the recent AGM and, indeed, they all received <60% support. This was all a consequence of debacles over the last couple of years including the write-downs associated with the Autonomy acquisition. Activist shareholder Ralph Whitworth will take over as temporary Chair until a permanent one is appointed.
Meg Whitman received 96% support and is staying on…at least for the time being.
HP has been a walking disaster area of late. It desperately needs a period of stability. Clearly it has not achieved that state yet. Indeed, I can’t see that happening until the whole Autonomy affair is put to rest. If the case that Whitman has put up against Mike Lynch and Autonomy is unproven then I really can’t see Whitman holding on to her role either.