Hewlett Packard shares rallied for the first time since 2008 when Mark Hurd was still the head of the company. Present Chief Executive Meg Whitman received praises for the company’s fiscal quarter but some analysts criticized her announcement that the company will not be broken up.
Shares of HP increased 12.3 percent to close at $19.20, which is the company’s biggest one day gain since November 18, 2008. That was when shares gained 14.5 percent after the company announced its better-than-expected results.
Last Thursday, HP announced revenues higher than Wall Street’s expectations but analysts said that the company has some obstacles in its way. They said that Whitman and her team have been making slow progress to improve the company.
Whitman said that Hewlett Packard is stronger and better when all its businesses are together. She added that in the last 10 years, HP became the most valuable franchise in the IT sector. Under then-CEO Hurd, the company was seen as a tech giant and favorite of Wall Street.
But Hurd was criticized for being too focused on cost-cutting. He left the company due to allegations of improper behavior, including a sexual harassment claim. Hurd then became the co-president of Oracle Corp.
Leo Apotheker became the CEO of HP that was highlighted by the acquisition of Autonomy Corp. The company then said that the cost was too high and Apotheker’s tenure in HP was tainted by claims of fraud. It was also during his term that the company announced it would it would junk its computer business. The company later backed off from the plan during Whitman and this led some analysts to suggest that Hewlett Packard should break up.
