HP's Hurd can't dance, but he can preach BT

To see HP CEO Mark Hurd speak in Las Vegas is to witness a contradiction. Hurd, after all, attended a deeply Texan college in Baylor University that had an unofficial ban on dancing until 1996. Sure, you could ogle the blonde, Baptist cheerleaders with the sweet Southern accents. You just couldn't lock hands with them and …

[Pascal Monett]

30% on maintenance ?

Employee alert ! Be ready for a new and vastly improved layoff program ! Hurd wants to cut 50% of the workforce ! Better get your CVs updated, people ! The Way is just about to pass you by.

[Dan Price]

Teenage wasteland?

"Teenage Wasteland"? I assume you mean Baba O'Riley?

[Alan]

Wish I'd been there

I wish I'd been there, because this archly cynical report doesn't really tell me anything.

[Lee Harrison]

This could be worse than Carly+Itanium

As reported this act was way beyond Steve Jobs in terms of RDF. Everybody would love to stop spending the majority of their IT budget on "maintenance" ... but nothing Hurd apparently said provides any mechanism as to how this could be done.

Further, the primary REASON everybody spends the majority of their IT resources on "maintenance" is that the whole goddam computer+IT industry uses technology push and forced obsolescence as its major mechanism to increase sales. Is HURD saying that somehow HP will give up on this time-tested profit mechanism AND also give up on the creature/performance feep which is what the high-margin sales depend on?

I don't believe it for a moment.

[Jack Pastor]

Pascal - Do U have some inside info ??

..or are you just blowing smoke ?? There has been no mention anywhere of a 50% workforce reduction. I seriously doubt any 100B company could SUSTAIN a 50% workforce reduction.

On what do you base your claim ???