Pulse2 Technology and Social Media News » Hewlett Packard

Google Hires Several Of HP’s webOS Enyo Employees

Amit Chowdhry — Fri, 25 May 2012 12:34:59 +0000

Following the news of HP laying off 27,000 employees, Google has hired employees from them. Several members of the HP team that was responsible for building Enyo, an HTML5-based application framework that was integrated into the HP TouchPad is joining Google. Enyo is an essential part of HP’s open source strategy for webOS. It is likely that the poached Enyo employees will find themselves working on Android or on Chrome. One of the key employees that Google hired from Enyo is Matt McNulty, whom was responsible for heading up Enyo. Below is a statement from HP that was sent to The Verge:

We’re pleased with the traction Enyo has gained to date and plan to continue its development along with the open source community. The Open webOS project is on schedule and we remain committed to the roadmap announced in January.

Autonomy Founder Mike Lynch Stepping Down From HP

Amit Chowdhry — Thu, 24 May 2012 14:39:04 +0000

Hewlett Packard acquired Autonomy for $10.3 billion in August 2011 under Leo Apotheker’s watch. Autonomy was profitable at the time of their acquisition, but under HP’s umbrella the company has seen significant declines in their licensing revenue. Autonomy founder Mike Lynch is now stepping down and he is being replaced by HP chief strategy officer and EVP of enterprise software Bill Veghte. In HP’s Q2 earnings release, the company said that this is being done to improve Autonomy’s performance. Below is a clip from the company’s earning announcement — I have bolded the part about Autonomy.

HP expects to reinvest savings in each of its business segments to strengthen their ability to stay ahead of customer expectations and capitalize on growing market trends.

– HP will invest in research and development to drive innovation and differentiation across its core printing and personal systems businesses, as well as emerging areas. It will also invest in marketing, sales productivity and tools that simplify the customer experience and make it easier to do business with HP.
– Services will invest in accelerating service capabilities in the high client value areas of cloud, security and information analytics by enhancing HP intellectual property. Services will also strengthen its industry orientation and continue to differentiate its service offerings through quality and innovation delivered to clients. Combined, these activities are expected to shift the portfolio to a more profitable mix of higher-growth services. Additional work in lean process methodologies is expected to better serve clients and increase overall efficiencies.
– Software will invest to speed development in the areas of security, big data and the management of application lifecycle and infrastructure solutions, both on premise and in the cloud. It will also further leverage the capabilities of Autonomy and Vertica across the entire HP portfolio.
– Enterprise Servers, Storage and Networking will invest to accelerate its research and development activities to extend its leading portfolio of servers, storage and networking. Together these assets create a Converged Infrastructure which is the foundation for top client initiatives such as cloud, virtualization, big data analytics, legacy modernization and social media.

CONFIRMED: HP Laying Off 27,000 People

Amit Chowdhry — Wed, 23 May 2012 21:07:38 +0000

Hewlett Packard is preparing to lay off 27,000 people, which is 8% of their global 325,000 person work-force. The cuts will happen by October 2014 so employees that are affected will have enough time to find new jobs. This is being called “multi-year restructuring.” Hewlett Packard is expecting that this would help make the company more innovative and cost effective. THe lay-off will include an early retirement program and a one-time charge of $1.8 billion. HP plans to continue investing in R&D, enterprise servers, software, etc.

“We are making progress in our multi-year effort to make HP simpler, more efficient and better for customers, employees, and shareholders,” stated HP CEO Meg Whitman. “This quarter we exceeded our previously provided outlook and are executing against our strategy, but we still have a lot of work to do.” HP also recently announced their quarterly earnings. Revenue for the second quarter was $30.7 billion, which is down 3% from a year ago, but is higher than what analysts were expecting.

RUMOR: HP To Have Significant Layoffs Soon

Amit Chowdhry — Thu, 17 May 2012 18:35:10 +0000

According to sources with BusinessInsider, Hewlett Packard is going to have significant layoffs. The source said that HP will lay off roughly 10-15% of their total work-force. Since HP has about 320,000 employees, the company would be laying off over 32,000. However this would include an early retirement plan. Manufacturing is believed to not be hit as hard as other units.

HP To Restart Tablet Manufacturing

Amit Chowdhry — Sat, 12 May 2012 00:03:24 +0000

Hewlett-Packard has announced that they will start production of their consumer tablets again running on the Windows 8 operating system. This is the first time that HP has started producing tablets again since the company suspended the TouchPad webOS tablet. At the Global Influencer Summit 2012, HP CEO Meg Whitman said that restarting tablet production is a strategic move to capitalize on the growth of tablet sales. HP’s Windows 8 tablets will come with cloud-based technology.

HP Unveils Envy Spectre XT

Amit Chowdhry — Wed, 09 May 2012 15:20:15 +0000

Hewlett Packard has unveiled the 13-inch Envy Spectre XT today. This is a follow-up to the Envy 14 Spectre that was released in January. The original Spectre costs $1,400 and the Spectre XT starts at $1000. The original Spectre has the Sandy Bridge CPU, but the Spectre XT will come with the third-generation Ivy Bridge core processors. Specs of the the XT: three pounds, thickness of 14.5 millimeters, 4GB of RAM, 128GB of SSD storage, and 8 hours of battery life. The Spectre XT isn’t the only new HP ultrabook laptops. Below is a list of all the laptops that HP is releasing as put together by Engadget.

HP Envy Spectre XT
Starts at $999.99; available on June 8
Operating system: Windows 7 Premium (64-bit)
Display: 13.3-inches (1366 x 768 resolution)
CPU: Available with third-generation Intel Core processors
Memory: 4GB 1600MHz DDR3
Storage: 128GB (up to 256GB) SSD
Input devices: Backlit Keyboard and HP Imagepad
Connectivity: 802.11a/g/n, 2×2 WLAN, Bluetooth, Intel Wireless Display
Ports include: Gigabit Ethernet, USB 3.0 (1), HDMI
Dimensions: 327 x 221 x 14.5 mm
Weight: 3.07 lbs.
Battery life: up to eight hours
Included software: two-year subscription to Norton Internet Security, full versions of Adobe Photoshop and Premiere Elements 10
Beats Audio with quad speakers
HP CoolSense technology
HP TrueVision HD Webcam
One-year subscription to Absolute Data Protect
Concierge phone line dedicated exclusively to HP ENVY Spectre owners

HP Envy Sleekbook (14-inch model)
Starts at $699.99; available on May 9
Operating system: Windows 7 Premium (64-bit)
Display: 14 inches (1366 x 768 resolution)
CPU: available with second- or third-generation Intel Core processors
Memory: 4GB 1600MHz DDR3
Storage: 500GB HDD
Connectivity: 802.11a/g/n
Ports include: Gigabit Ethernet, USB 3.0 (2), USB 2.0 (1), HDMI, SD reader
Weight: starting at 4 pounds
Thickness: “as thin as 19.8 mm”
Battery life: up to eight hours
Beats Audio with dual speakers and a subwoofer
HP CoolSense technology
HP TrueVision HD Webcam
HP Protect Smart

HP Envy Ultrabook (14-inch model)
Starts at $749.99; available on May 9
Operating system: Windows 7 Premium (64-bit)
Display: 14 inches (1366 x 768 resolution)
CPU: available with second- or third-generation Intel Core processors
Memory: 4GB 1600MHz DDR3
Storage: 32GB (cache) mSATA with 500GB HDD
Connectivity: 802.11a/g/n
Ports include: Gigabit Ethernet, USB 3.0 (2), USB 2.0 (1), HDMI, SD reader
Weight: starting at 4 pounds
Thickness: “as thin as 19.8 mm”
Battery life: up to eight hours
Beats Audio with dual speakers and a subwoofer
HP CoolSense technology
HP TrueVision HD Webcam
HP Protect Smart
Intel Technologies: Rapid Start, Identity Protection Technology, Smart Response and
Smart Connect Technologies

HP Envy Sleekbook (15.6-inch model)
Starts at $599.99; available on June 20
Operating system: Windows 7 Premium (64-bit)
Display: 15.6 inches (1366 x 768 resolution)
CPU: a second-generation AMD APU
Memory: 4GB 1600MHz DDR3
Storage: 320GB HDD
Connectivity: 802.11a/g/n
Ports include: Gigabit Ethernet, USB 3.0 (2), USB 2.0 (1), HDMI, SD reader
Weight: starting at 4 pounds
Thickness: “as thin as 19.8 mm”
Battery life: up to nine hours
Beats Audio with dual speakers and a subwoofer
HP CoolSense technology
HP TrueVision HD Webcam
HP Protect Smart

HP Envy Ultrabook (15.6-inch model)
Starts at $799.99; available on May 9
Operating system: Windows 7 Premium (64-bit)
Display: 15.6 inches (1366 x 768 resolution)
CPU: available with second- or third-generation Intel Core processors
Memory: 4GB 1600MHz DDR3
Storage: 32GB (cache) mSATA with 500GB HDD
Connectivity: 802.11a/g/n
Ports include: Gigabit Ethernet, USB 3.0 (2), USB 2.0 (1), HDMI, SD reader
Weight: starting at 4 pounds
Thickness: “as thin as 19.8 mm”
Battery life: up to nine hours
Beats Audio with dual speakers and a subwoofer
HP CoolSense technology
HP TrueVision HD Webcam
HP Protect Smart
Intel Technologies: Rapid Start, Identity Protection Technology, Smart Response and
Smart Connect Technologies

Prith Banerjee Stepping Down As Head Of HP Labs

Amit Chowdhry — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 12:28:06 +0000

HP senior vice president Prith Banerjee is rumored to be stepping down from the company after working there for five years. Banerjee is leaving to work for a company that is based outside of the U.S. After Banerjee leaves on April 15th, HP Senior Fellow and director of Sustainable Ecosystems Research Group Chandrakant Patel will head HP Labs. Patel joined HP Labs in 1991. Banerjee previously built a chip startup company called AccelChip and sold it to Xilinx in 2006. He was also the dean of the UIUC College of Engineering.

HP Combining Printer and PC Units

Amit Chowdhry — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 03:13:32 +0000

Hewlett Packard has announced today that they will be moving their Imaging and Printing Group under the PC-manufacturing Personal Systems Group. HP executive vice president Vyomesh “VJ” Joshi is leaving the company. The combined unit will report to executive vice president Todd Bradley.

HP is reorganizing the two groups as part of a cost-cutting and simplification initiative pushed by HP CEO Meg Whitman. HP believes that the two groups make more sense combined than separately.

The IPG unit business has declined in recent years. In the most recent quarter, HP reported that sales fell by 7% to $6.3 billion while the unit’s earnings from operations fell by 32%. The PSG and IPG accounted for $65 billion in sales in 2011. This is over 51% of HP’s overall sales. The combined profits were $6.3 billion.

The Sexual Harassment Letter That Got Mark Hurd Fired

Amit Chowdhry — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 18:43:25 +0000

This past August former HP CEO Mark Hurd stepped down from the company after he was caught sending a sexual harassment letter. Hurd had a personal relationship with contractor Jodie Fisher, who had worked at HP as a greeter and hostess at company events. Hurd currently works at Oracle Corporation as a co-president and Meg Whitman has replaced him at Hewlett Packard. AllThingsD got their hands on the letter that attorney Gloria Allred wrote to Hurd on behalf of Jodie Fisher. I have embedded the letter below.

“It is appalling that you would use HP revenues for the purpose of procuring female companionship and romance under the guise of HP business,” states the letter. However Oracle spokesperson Ken Glueck said that “This letter was recanted by Ms. Fisher. She admitted it was full of inaccuracies.”

Hurd started pursuing Fisher in 2007, but ended up backing off as she started to voice discomfort with the situation. Fisher was paid $30,000 to be a hostess at 6 HP events. In October 2007, Hurd and Fisher had dinner together after an HP event and he invited her up to his room. A distraught Fisher called her Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor to get advice before going up to Hurd’s room.

Fisher went up to Hurd’s room and insisted that they do not sleep together. She said “I barely know you and you are my boss.” Hurd sent Fisher a letter saying that he was “doing all the work” in their relationship, but Fisher said she was not interested in him romantically. Hurd kissed Fisher on the lips and walked away at one point. Below are the letters:
Allred Letter Redacted New

HP Wanted $1.2 Billion For webOS and Palm

Amit Chowdhry — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 23:56:56 +0000

Most of you may remember how HP made webOS open source, but here is the full story of how they got there. Hewlett Packard acquired Palm for $1.2 billion in April 2010. After an unsuccessful TouchPad launch, the company hired Meg Whitman to decide what to do with Palm. Apparently Whitman considered selling Palm for $1.2 billion before making it open source.

HP seemed to ignore the fact that Palm possibly lost some of their value after the TouchPad flopped. HP’s other webOS phones such as the Pre 3 and the Veer did not do too well either. This is possibly why HP failed to make a deal go through with Amazon, Samsung, Intel, and even Facebook. HP is still planning to make webOS tablets in 2012.

It may have been possible that HP lowered the price of webOS, but most likely interested parties would not be willing to pay any more than $500 million. HP is believed to have asked for access to webOS for printers.

[VentureBeat]