Turmoil at HP: a CEO shakeup, executive exits, and an open source future for webOS – The Verge

WebOS betrayal costs HP $57 million in class action settlement

2014-04-01T04:24:46-04:00

It may have been overshadowed by pricier acquisition deals in subsequent years, but HP's 2010 takeover of Palm remains a milestone event. It was a seemingly perfect combination of a highly competitive mobile operating system with a deep-pocketed hardware juggernaut. HP promised it would fund the future development of webOS and support it with a broad ecosystem of devices. Only a year later, however, the company reversed course and abandoned its touted plans, to the chagrin of hard-hit shareholders.

A class action lawsuit filed in the wake of that decision in 2011 has now been settled by HP at the cost of $57 million. The plaintiffs are prim …

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The lost secrets of webOS

2014-01-02T12:28:12-05:00

lost webos 1 lead

Next week, LG will unveil new televisions running webOS, the ill-fated operating system it acquired in last February. Although LG is expected to retain some form of webOS' interface, exactly what that will mean on a television instead of a phone or tablet is still a mystery. If LG has any luck at all, it will be more successful than the last consumer webOS products. It's been over two years since HP's TouchPad and the Pre 3 were released and then discontinued in a surprise decision from then-CEO Léo Apotheker. In fact, most people within HP were blindsided when executives decided to stop hardware production and left the software team twistin …

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HP looking to sell webOS mobile patents, says Bloomberg

2013-10-24T09:34:54-04:00

HP webOS_640

HP could be making a further break from its webOS past: Bloomberg News reports that the company is looking to sell part of its mobile patent portfolio. Anonymous sources say HP has removed some conditions that would make the patents less attractive and is now approaching potential buyers about taking on the intellectual property from, among other things, its webOS mobile platform. HP acquired webOS in 2010 when it bought Palm, and the operating system was used on the Palm Pre phone and HP TouchPad tablet, among other devices. But HP's mobile division ultimately floundered; the company made webOS an open source platform, then sold the code off …

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Update or die: HP issuing mandatory patch to save webOS device services

2013-06-06T12:20:46-04:00

HP webOS_640

Today is the four-year anniversary of the retail release of the first Palm Pre. It's also a day to reflect on the fact that each and every webOS device has what amounts to a ticking time bomb inside it, set to go off on July 23rd, 2013. A "Root Certificate" will expire on that day, and it's required to safely and securely access online webOS services including backup, restore, app catalog, and even activation. Both HP and the webOS community have been aware of this issue for some time, and many thought HP would need to issue a full OS update in order to save those online services.

Apparently not, as today the company will announce that it's …

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Never-released webOS smartphone codenamed WindsorNot revealed

2013-04-24T16:28:46-04:00

WEBOS NATION windsornot prototype

The device above is the all-touch webOS smartphone that never was. Long after HP's misadventure with Palm, a prototype of this previously-rumored phone - codenamed WindsorNot - has been obtained by webOS Nation. The smartphone is said to have identical internals to the Pre 3, and it is centered around a 4-inch, 800 x 480 touchscreen. Unlike the Pre 3, however, it runs webOS 3.x, the same version that was used on the ill-fated HP TouchPad. Instead of a gesture area like that found on the Pre, the WindsorNot has a home button borrowed almost directly from the TouchPad. Unfortunately, the prototype is far from stable, and it can't make it past …

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HP launches ‘Project Moonshot’ low-power server to try and save itself

2013-04-08T11:47:52-04:00

HP Project Moonshot Press Image

Last month, during HP's annual shareholder meeting, CEO Meg Whitman told investors about what may be the company's most important product launch of the past few years. "This is not evolutionary innovation, this is disruptive innovation… This could truly be a revolution."

The hyperbole doesn't stop there. The product, which is being launched today, is called Project Moonshot - terminology that should conjure images of Google Glass and a self-driving car - and it's said to be the result of more than ten years of research. It's neither of those things, however: it's a new, low-power server for enterprises.

The hype may be justified, however: …

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HP board reportedly mulling breakup of company (update)

2013-02-05T18:00:41-05:00

hp logo

When Meg Whitman took the helm as HP's CEO, she famously reversed the decision of her predecessor, Leo Apotheker, to spin off the company's consumer PC business. But according to Quartz, HP's board is again toying with the idea of a breakup - a move directors apparently think could improve the financial outlook for shareholders. Quartz Editor-in-chief Kevin Delaney and Gina Chon write that HP's board is considering a variety of breakup scenarios, though it appears executives first want to give Whitman a chance to return HP to profitability as a cohesive unit - a goal she's expressed as unlikely in 2013.

Even so, HP regaining momentum would …

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HP CEO: company will struggle to be profitable in 2013, stocks near a nine-year low

2012-10-03T14:58:15-04:00

Meg Whitman HP (Verge original image)

It's been just over a year since Meg Whitman took over as CEO with hopes of turning the struggling company around, and so far the results haven't gone as hoped. According to Reuters, Whitman said at HP's annual investor meeting that it will take until 2014 for the company's turnaround to become visible, and as such the company will struggle to be profitable over the next year. Along with this news, HP's stock price has dropped 10 percent as of this writing and sits near a nine-year low point. Whitman pointed to lack of clarity around the company's strategy as well as heavy executive turnover for the company's struggles, saying "the single bi …

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HP CEO Meg Whitman says ‘we have to ultimately offer a smartphone’

2012-09-14T09:12:44-04:00

HP logo stock

Last month we learned that HP was launching a new Mobility business unit with a focus on consumer tablets, but it looks like the company's ambitions may also include smartphones. Speaking to Fox Business News, CEO Meg Whitman said that HP is working on getting into the smartphone market, though no timetable has been set. "We have to ultimately offer a smartphone because in many countries of the world that would be your first computing device," she explained. "We are a computing company, we have to take advantage of that form factor." The news comes as HP is coming off of a flat third quarter in which the company saw a drop in sales for its P …

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Exclusive: HP creates Mobility division to focus on consumer tablets, hires Nokia’s ex-MeeGo boss Alberto Torres to run it

2012-08-17T11:29:14-04:00

HP logo stock

We've just been tipped to a memo circulated internally by HP's Todd Bradley - who runs the company's recently-merged Printing and Personal Systems Group - announcing the creating of a new Mobility business unit underneath him that will be responsible for "consumer tablets" and "additional segments and categories where we believe we can offer differentiated value to our customers." The news comes almost exactly one year since HP killed the TouchPad, effectively ending Palm's run as a hardware company and throwing webOS itself into an uncertain future as an open source platform.

Running the new Mobility unit will be Alberto Torres, who depart …

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