5 ms·
Cringely’s second column on the firing of Leo Apotheker
- nextparadigms 15y agoAmazing how he was able to make such a specific prediction, not only about the firing of Leo, but also the hiring of Meg Whitman, if it was actually just a prediction. But he most likely had some strong inside information. It seems that the HP board is set on destroying HP with all these political games and hiring friends as CEO's.
- larrik 15y agoNot to mention buying SAP (or as it actually turned out, a SAP-like company).
- cpeterso 15y agoMaybe Autonomy could hire Leo?
- shithead 15y ago> But he most likely had some strong inside information. He's been watching the show for a couple dozen seasons now. The scripts aren't quite Coyote and Road Runner class, but it is possible to make good guesses about what the characters will do. Besides, inside information would probably be wrong anyway, possibly deliberately.
- blumentopf 15y agoMaybe the board took his column as advice?
- Jun8 15y agoReading the comments to hist first post totally made my afternoon. People ridiculing his choice of Whitman as the new CEO? And totally clueless ones stating that Apotheker was the right person to take HP out of trouble.
- mindblink 15y agoImpressive prediction. This was in February, way before the bungled Touchpad and WebOS strategy, followed by announcements that totally diminish the Hardware division, which remains a large portion of HP's value proposition. Cringely has made wild predictions that don't pan out, but this is one that was right on target.
- PotatoEngineer 15y agoWell, if you guess enough times...
- OoTheNigerian 15y agoThese are VERY specific series of guesses. Names being mentioned, scenerios being played out.
- andrewtbham 15y agoEven a broken clock is right twice a day. He also predicted before the apple press conference where they gave away free bumpers for antenna problems that apple had halted production of iphones. http://www.cringely.com/2010/07/missing-in-action/ http://www.cringely.com/2010/07/missing-in-action/
- Apocryphon 15y agoWhat's Cringely's reputation? Why would be considered a broken clock?
- avree 15y agoCringely prides himself on his predictions. He makes many of them. Sometimes they are extremely accurate—sometimes they are extremely off (like predicting that Apple would buy Time Warner Cable, or predicting that Apple would halt production of iPhone 4s to 'fix the antenna issue [http://www.cringely.com/2010/07/missing-in-action/] http://www.cringely.com/2010/07/missing-in-action/])
- Uhhrrr 15y agoHe at least used to make an annual list and score himself later: 2011: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://www.cringely.com/tag/2011-predictions/ http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://... 2009: http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2008/pulpit_20081216_005509.html http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2008/pulpit_20081216_0055... 2006: http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2007/pulpit_20070105_001440.html http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2007/pulpit_20070105_0014... For 2009 he scores himself 4 right and 11 wrong, which is certainly broken clock territory, but he's usually decent for a pundit.
- rmason 15y agoIn all fairness to Leo Apotheker you can't judge whether he would be ultimately successful based on a single year at the helm. Imagine that the Apple board fired Steve Jobs after one year in 1998? After all he killed the clones as well as disrupting the most single profitable piece of a financial struggling company - http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/09/what_steve_jobs_taught_me_abou.html http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/09/what_steve_jobs_taught_me_ab... Not to mention wanting to open retail stores after CompuAdd and Gateway both proved that was an unworkable idea. I personally think the board shouldn't have hired Apotheker in the first place but you can't give him more than an incomplete on his two turns as a CEO.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]