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explains Jonathan Atkinson British Environment AgencyThe reason The costs incurred by offshoreIssue of perimeterEvery medal has its setbacksA miséance the title featured more just a 1Europe is therefore more disunited than everTalking about there instead of gas and oilThe solution has everything to please RFFThe French remain very respectful of traditionsSome countries may even launch their second fundWe feel so awareness of the market taken as a wholeWould talent default in Hewlett-Packard For the third time after Carly Fiorina and Mark Hurd, the computer giant went to recruit his boss outside its walls. Leo Apotheker, who will assume his functions of Director-General and President November 1, so lie the rumor that predicted the promotion of one of the current Executive, as Ann Livermore (business division), Todd Bradley (PC) or Dave Donatelli (servers & storage). A decision which would have allowed to federate and to reassure the 300,000 employees of the group, after the surprise resignation of Mark Hurd, August 6. The leader of German origin was also preferred to other figures of the high-tech American, from IBM, Apple or Microsoft - many of them have however declined the offer, according to the "Wall Street Journal".
The profile of the person surprise. Leo Apotheker has spent most of his career at SAP, contributing to the German group the world leader in management software, to Oracle. The new pattern of HP is not an engineer, he built his career through its skills and marketing. This experience could weigh in the balance in the choice of the CEO. "One of the biggest challenges now for HP, it is to succeed in increasing its turnover," says Gartner analyst Martin Reynolds. Cost reduction policy applied by Mark Hurd allowed the group to display exceptional profitability. But the growth of income, excluding acquisitions, has been limited in five years. Until now, "HP remained focused on its culture of engineers", complete Martin Reynolds.
An anti-Oracle strategy
Many observers have interpreted the appointment of Leo Apotheker, specialist in the world of software, as a clear sign of the new strategic direction of the computer group, which wants to be present on all fronts. HP seeks to limit its dependence in historical activities such as PCs and printers, to limited profitability, and wants to expand its technology portfolio to more lucrative trades, such as software, where the margins vary between 20 and 25 of revenues. Recent acquisitions, this year, bear witness to this diversification (Arcsight, Fortify Software, Stratavia...). The weight of the software activity is still minor (3 of revenues). But the size and the power of HP could leave considering rapid growth in this segment, whether organic or external (see below). The emergence of "cloud computing", new computer eldorado on which all major actors are positioned, requires also have an arsenal of products diversified, with a significant software brick.
"The software is an essential element in the high-tech world, recognized Leo Apotheker, a telephone conference Friday. But HP is focused on all of its activities. And I arrived in the company does not necessarily mean that we are going to focus on this segment in particular. "Analysts are struggling to be convinced. And Ray Lane concomitant recruitment to the post of President of the Board of Directors confirms their analysis, while veteran of Silicon Valley, at the head of a venture capital fund, was the Managing Director of Oracle in the 1990s.
Some will also detect in these appointments anti-Oracle strategy. The software publisher is displayed as a serious competitor since the computer manufacturer Sun last year. Relations between the two groups are electric, since Larry Ellison was hired in early September his friend Mark Hurd, after criticizing the decision of the Board of HP to push its ex-PDG towards the exit. As a former boss of SAP and habitué of the jousting with Oracle, Leo Apotheker will not feel.
