Hewlett-Packard Co. Chairman Ray Lane is giving up his chairmanship of the company’s board in a shakeup that underscores investors’ dismay with the botched acquisition of Autonomy Corp.
Directors G. Kennedy Thompson and John Hammergren are departing, while Ralph Whitworth will take over as interim board chairman, Palo Alto, California-based Hewlett-Packard, said today in a statement.
Lane, Thompson and Hammergren were re-elected in slim majorities in a referendum last month that demonstrated growing dissatisfaction with the company’s performance and takeover of Autonomy, which HP had acquired for $10 billion in 2011. At the March 20 annual shareholders meeting, Lane’s re-election as director received just 59 percent support, compared with 96 percent for Whitworth, a veteran shareholder activist who will run the board temporarily.
“After reflecting on the stockholder vote last month, I’ve decided to step down as executive chairman to reduce any distraction from HP’s ongoing turnaround,” Lane said in a statement.
An $8.8 billion writedown of Autonomy, disclosed in November, capped a three-year stretch of management upheaval, strategy shifts and slowing growth that hammered shares and made it harder for Chief Executive Officer Meg Whitman to turn around growth at the computer maker.
“It’s the right thing, even if a little late,” said Erik Gordon, a professor at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. Ray Lane “was just barely re-elected to the board and was chairman during HP’s most horrible years. His legendary status didn’t do anything for HP.”
Hammergren and Thompson’s tenure will end after a board meeting scheduled for May, Hewlett-Packard said. The board has begun a search for new directors, HP said.
On Thursday, HP shares dipped 5 cents to $22.25 in after-hours trading after closing up 1.8 percent at $22.30. The company’s stock is nearly two-thirds below its all-time peak of $69, reached in June 2000.
(Bloomberg News and The Associated Press contributed to this report)
