Whitman Leaving Helm at HPE in January, Handing Reins to 'Deeper Technologist'

In what some analysts saw as an abrupt change of course, Hewlett Packard Enterprise CEO Meg Whitman is stepping down as CEO effective Jan. 31, she announced on the company’s Q4 earnings call Tuesday. Antonio Neri, HP Enterprise president, was named CEO, effective Feb. 1, and Whitman will remain a director. Neri began his 22-year HP career as a customer service engineer in a company call center in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region. Responding in Q&A to an analyst who expressed surprise at Whitman’s decision to step down, after comments she made as recently as September about having no plans to leave (see 1709060002), Whitman said there was no change in sentiment. She cited her own accomplishments in creating shareholder value, restructuring financial units and pushing innovation, and said the next HP CEO needs to be a “deeper technologist, and that’s exactly what Antonio is.” Neri has worked in nearly every business unit in the company, she said. Whitman said in Q&A that Hurricane Harvey disrupted HP’s supply chain in “reasonably dramatic fashion” at a cost of $93 million that led to “some weakness” in Q4. The company announced several weeks ago it was moving manufacturing out of the Houston area to a location in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. HPE Revenue was up 11 percent year over year to $13.9 billion in HP’s Q4 FY 2017, said the company in a Tuesday earnings release. Personal Systems net revenue grew 13 percent year over year, with consumer revenue jumping 18 percent over the year-ago quarter, led by an 8 percent rise in notebook sales. Desktop sales rose 2 percent and consumer printer sales grew 3 percent, said the company.