WORST COMPANIES IN AMERICA

24/7 Wallstreet has compiled a list of the worst run companies in America. It used a number of factors to evaluate the companies including stock price, dividends paid, product launch success, financial results, success of new management and the performance of each company within its industry. Not surprisingly a number of technology oriented companies made the list.

Research in Motion (RIM) came in at #2 on the list. It's delay in releasing competitive products and poorly designed products with the inability to compete against Apple and Android were sited as two of the main reasons.

At #4 on the list is Eastman Kodak. With the inability to transition from an operating company to a patent holder with intellectual property to license investors are very skittish on the company. It's stock price is down 79% YTD and many investors are suing the company for misleading them about how much capital it had on hand.

In the 7-9 spots are Hewlett-Packard, Groupon and Netflix respectively. HP has lost up to 22% of it's stock price with the main concern around the ability to find a successful successor to Mark Hurd. Groupon has never made a profit and there are concerns about it's accounting practices. Rounding out the list is Netflix. It makes the list mainly due to the debacle this summer where the company raised rates on customers 60%. It lost over 800,000 customers according to it's most recent filing.

To read the rest of the list and see who was in the best companies catagory, hit the link above.

HP MAKES webOS OPEN SOURCE; CONFIRMS NEW HARDWARE

HP announced on Friday that it will open-source its webOS mobile operating system, which once upon a time powered smartphones and a single tablet. Even though the company said quite some time ago that it was killing off it webOS hardware efforts, HP CEO Meg Whitman said in an interview with The Verge on Friday that HP plans to create new webOS-based devices in the future. “The answer to that is yes but what I can’t tell you is whether that will be in 2012 or not,” Whitman said when asked about the potential for new hardware. “But we will use webOS in new hardware, but it’s just going to take us a little longer to reorganize the team in a quite different direction than we’ve been taking it in the past.” Whitman declined to elaborate on what webOS devices HP plans to build, but she did say tablets are possible.

HP CALLS ALL HANDS webOS MEETING

HP CEO Meg Whitman has weighed the options for what to do with webOS, and tomorrow at 10:30 AM Pacific Time we should finally get and answer. Rumor and speculation have been swirling for what seems like an eternity. At first the general assumption was that HP would sell webOS to the highest bidder, possibly just for the foundational smartphone patents held by HP. But as time went on, more and more potential suitors publicly backed out. Whitman has taken her time coming to a decision, but recently has been making increasingly positive statements about webOS.

With an all-hands meeting for the webOS Global Business Unit scheduled for tomorrow and Whitman set to attend, we're expecting to finally get some answers. It was exactly one month ago that Whitman stood before the same group, pledging to take the time to make "the right decision, not the fast decision."

HP TO SELL REFURB TOUCHPADS FOR $99 ON 12/11

Starting Sunday, December 11th at 6:00 p.m. Central time, 16GB and 32GB Touchpads will be available on HP’s ebay store. A $79 accessory bundle will also be available, which includes a case, charging dock and wireless keyboard. Look for them in the laptop section. As you would expect, there are some caveats with this deal with the main disappointment being these are refurbished TouchPads rather than the brand new models sold during the first firesale.

The refurbished 16GB and 32GB models will be available in an unannounced quantity. Sales will be limited to just two SKUs per ebay member and PayPal must be used to complete the transaction. All sales are final and the product only comes with a 90-day warranty.

BEST BUY TO OFFER TOUCHPAD WITH HP COMPUTER PURCHASE

Best Buy announced on Monday that customers who purchase an HP or Compaq laptop, desktop or all-in-one computer can opt to purchase an HP TouchPad tablet for an additional $149. The deal, which gives a small breath of life to a tablet that has already been killed-off by HP, kicks off on November 1st. Interested buyers can also purchase the TouchPad for $599.99, the tablet’s initial launch price, without buying an HP computer. As a quick refresher, the TouchPad offers a 9.7-inch XGA display, 32GB of storage, a 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and support for 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi and NFC.

HP DIVING INTO WINDOWS 8 TABLET POOL

During the company’s third-quarter earnings call on Thursday, HP CEO Meg Whitman confirmed that her company will launch tablets powered by Microsoft’s Windows 8 operating system next year. “One of my observations is that HP tries to do a lot of things,” Whitman explained. “And I am a big believer in doing a small number of things really, really well — set them up, knock them down, set them up, knock them down.” Whitman’s comments are in-line with recent rumors that suggested that Dell and HP would both launch Windows 8 tablets during the third quarter next year.

HP SAYS TOUCHPAD OFFICIALLY OUT OF STOCK

Hewlett-Packard sent out notices today that it is officially out of TouchPads, meaning there will be no more shipments of those popular $99 tablets. The notice says, "As you signed up for updates on the HP TouchPad, we wanted you to know that we are officially out of stock. Some retailers will have some stock available, but our online inventory is depleted."

The only other avenue for getting a TouchPad is Best Buy. The retailer announced today that it will offer a 32 GB HP TouchPad for $149.99 with purchase of an HP or Compaq Laptop, Desktop or All-in-One computer.

HP KEEPING PC DIVISION

HP today announced that it has completed its evaluation of strategic alternatives for its Personal Systems Group (PSG) and has decided the unit will remain part of the company. “HP objectively evaluated the strategic, financial and operational impact of spinning off PSG. It’s clear after our analysis that keeping PSG within HP is right for customers and partners, right for shareholders, and right for employees,” said Meg Whitman, HP president and chief executive officer. “HP is committed to PSG, and together we are stronger.”

The strategic review involved subject matter experts from across the businesses and functions. The data-driven evaluation revealed the depth of the integration that has occurred across key operations such as supply chain, IT and procurement. It also detailed the significant extent to which PSG contributes to HP’s solutions portfolio and overall brand value. Finally, it also showed that the cost to recreate these in a standalone company outweighed any benefits of separation.

The outcome of this exercise reaffirms HP’s model and the value for its customers and shareholders. PSG is a key component of HP’s strategy to deliver higher value, lasting relationships with consumers, small- and medium-sized businesses and enterprise customers. The HP board of directors is confident that PSG can drive profitable growth as part of the larger entity and accelerate solutions from other parts of HP’s business.

PSG has a history of innovation and technological leadership as well as an established record of industry-leading profitability. It is the No. 1 manufacturer of personal computers in the world with revenues totaling $40.7 billion for fiscal year 2010.

“As part of HP, PSG will continue to give customers and partners the advantages of product innovation and global scale across the industry’s broadest portfolio of PCs, workstations and more,” said Todd Bradley, executive vice president, Personal Systems Group, HP. “We intend to make the leading PC business in the world even better.”

VIRGINIA ROMETTY IBM'S NEW CEO

Speculation has been running fairly consistent for awhile now that there would soon be a new CEO at IBM, as Sam Palmisano approached the company’s typical retirement age. Today the company’s board of directors named Virginia Rometty, senior vice president and group executive for sales, marketing and strategy, as the new CEO. She’ll take over at the start of the new year. Palmisano will continue as chairman.

According to IBM’s official bio on her, she goes by the name “Ginni.” In her current job, she’s been responsible for revenue, profit, and client satisfaction globally and has been in charge of strategy, marketing and communications.
Before that she ran Big Blue’s global business services unit and helmed the tricky integration of PriceWaterhouseCoopers, which was a key acquisition in 2002, as it became the lynchpin of IBM’s strategically important services business. You may remember that Hewlett-Packard tried and failed to acquire the PwC Consulting business during the Carly Fiorina era. At that time, HP proposed paying $17 billion and change, but negotiations fell through. IBM swooped in and took it out for less than $4 billion in 2002.

Rometty’s naming as CEO makes it an interesting moment in history. With Meg Whitman at the helm of HP, women now run the two biggest IT companies by revenue in the world.

HP BUYS CONTROLLING STAKE IN AUTONOMY

The list of HP acquisitions grows by one today, with the purchase of UK information-software maker Autonomy, long a target of former HP chief Léo Apotheker. Apotheker, you may recall, was just ousted in favor of former eBay CEO Meg Whitman. The deal began during Apotheker's tenure and went through with HP paying just about $10.4 billion for a controlling percentage of Autonomy stock. The UK firm will remain a separate unit, with Whitman saying, "Autonomy significantly increases our capabilities to manage and extract meaning from that data to drive insight, foresight and better decision making."

RUMOR: AMAZON IN TALKS TO BUY PALM FROM HP

A well-placed source is saying that HP is currently looking to rid itself of Palm as soon as possible, and that Amazon is the closest to finalizing the deal, among a handful of contenders. There is no word on price or conditions of the sale. When asked for comment, an HP spokesperson said the company doesn’t comment on rumors and speculation. Amazon has ignored all requests for comment.

RUMOR: FORMER eBAY CEO MEG WHITMAN TO REPLACE HP CEO APOTHEKER

HP may replace current CEO Leo Apotheker with former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, AllThingsD reported on Wednesday. Reportedly, HP board members are not pleased with “a series of management mishaps,” inside HP. It is unclear if those mishaps are related to HP’s recent decision to kill off its webOS devices and spin off its PC business, which resulted in recent job cuts from the former Palm team.

The board may be more upset HP’s stock has tanked more than 40% since Apotheker took the reins in September, 2010. In any case, if Apotheker does get relieved of his duties as CEO, one analyst has suggested he will still have made $9.4 million for the year. Whitman, who is also on HP’s board, is reportedly interested in the job but the appointment is far from official, AllThingsD said. Whitman’s experience in the consumer market might help HP if ever does decide to revive the TouchPad and other webOS hardware efforts. Whitman served as eBay’s chief executive for 10 years until 2008 before trying her hand in politics.

HP TO LAYOFF OVER 500 WEBOS EMPLOYEES THIS WEEK

HP will lay off as many as 525 employees from its Palm division this week AllThingsD reported on Tuesday. HP killed off its webOS mobile operating system in mid-August when it also announced it would discontinue the development of webOS devices such as the TouchPad and Palm Pre family of smartphones. “As part of this decision, the webOS GBU is undergoing a reduction in workforce,” an HP spokesperson explained. “Today’s actions are part of this initiative. During this time, we stand by our commitment to our webOS customers and will work to ensure that support and service for customers are not adversely affected. HP is exploring ways to leverage webOS software.”

HP SUED BY SHAREHOLDER OVER WEBOS AND TOUCHPAD

HP shareholder Richard Gammell has filed a class-action lawsuit against HP after the company made the drastic decision to kill off the TouchPad in August, which resulted in a 20% drop in share price the following day, Reuters reported. Gammell argued in the suit that HP failed to inform investors the webOS operating system was no longer a major part of the company’s plans moving forward, and that the company had revamped its business plan without telling shareholders. Those actions, Gammell argues, artificially inflated HP’s share price. Gammell is seeking damages for any HP investor who purchased stock between November 22, 2010 and August 18th, 2011.

CONFUSION AROUND HP CAUSING CUSTOMERS TO FLEE

The ongoing confusion over HP's future plans is causing customers to abandon ship, according to reports. The company has been sending out mixed messages since its shock announcement to quit the PC business, as well as stop production of its webOS TouchPad tablet. It makes you wonder what the strategy really is and where they are going.

HP's dithering is already causing customers to look elsewhere, according to the Wall Street Journal. The paper cited engineering company Fluor, which generally spends $25 million a year on new hardware and software, and was planning to buy high-end design computers and a fleet of tablets from HP. "I've put that all on hold and won't buy from HP,” said Fluor chief information officer Ray Barnard in the report. "It appears that they're lost right now."

And Fluor was not alone, with the WSJ also citing education customers with doubts over spending money with the world's largest PC manufacturer, amid confusion over its plans and abrupt announcements.
"This appears to just come out of the blue without a really good explanation," Frank Cervone, a vice chancellor for information services at Purdue University, told the paper. "It makes you wonder what the strategy really is and where it is going."

SAMSUNG CEO SAYS THEY WILL NEVER BUY WEBOS

During the IFA trade show in Berlin on Friday, Samsung Electronics CEO Choi Gee Sung addressed rumors and speculation that Samsung was considering purchasing webOS from HP. Choi said Samsung would “never” make the purchase, according to Bloomberg. “It’s not right that acquiring an operating system is becoming a fashion,” he said. Samsung Mobile already has its own mobile operating system called bada and just released version 2.0. It also sells smartphones running Android and Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform. HP, which recently announced that it is ostensibly killing off the mobile operating system, has been working with other technology firms to license webOS. While Samsung may not buy webOS outright, the Korean-based company has held talks to license webOS for new smartphones, Bloomberg said, but it is still unclear how those discussions turned out. Considering the success Samsung is currently enjoying with Android and bada, however, we’re not sure HP will be able to convince Samsung that there is any real value in adopting an OS that it couldn’t even sell to users itself.

HP TO CONTINUE BUILDING TOUCHPAD UNTIL OCTOBER

Hewlett-Packard may have killed the TouchPad, but it’s going to continue manufacturing it for just a little while longer.

With demand for the heavily discounted tablet still running high, HP has decided to produce one one last run before sending it off to a final dirt nap. “HP will be manufacturing a limited quantity of TouchPads with webOS during our fourth fiscal quarter 2011, which ends October 31,” the company said in an update posted to its Next Bench Blog.

Presumably, HP’s upstream suppliers are unhappily sitting atop big piles of component inventory. If the demand is there and the inventory is prepped and paid for, why not produce another run — especially if the company intends to continue to update webOS.
So even in death, the Touchpad lives on thanks to that $99 price point which seems to have ginned up the consumer interest that the $499 device could not.

RUMOR: SAMSUNG BUYING HP PC BUSINESS

According to a new report from DigiTimes, Samsung may be eyeing a purchase of HP’s PC division, which would catapult the South Korea-based electronics giant past Dell and into the No. 1 PC vendor spot globally. The report states that Samsung is currently meeting with various leading manufacturers including Quanta and Compal to investigate outsourcing the production of its own netbook computers. Samsung has held similar meetings in the past to no avail, but anonymous source tell DigiTimes that the company may be particularly motivated this time around as it negotiates a deal to take over HP’s PC business and free up space to build the machines in its own factories.

WHAT DID WE LEARN FROM THE HP TOUCHPAD?

HP announced they are getting out of the consumer hardware business last week. The surprising move came just 2 years after HP paid $2.4 billion for Palm and its WebOS software and just 10 years after buying competitor Compaq for around $25 billion. The purchase of Compaq made HP, at the time, the largest computer company in the world. After just 10 short years they managed to squander that title and their consumer hardware market has slid into oblivion.

What is amazing is that HP has inadvertently shed light on post-PC era and the problem many companies are having as they take on the current hardware leader Apple and its ubiquitous iPad. A lot of critics and tech pundits have lamented that lack of apps leading to HP’s decision to pull the plug on its Touchpad, however what has happened in the last 3 days has proved that to be inaccurate. HP has a vibrant WebOS App Catalog suite for both the Pre series of smartphones but also the Touchpad. The WebOS had a loyal following and dedicated community as well. So what did HP show the rest of the companies chasing Apple? Price point!

Since Apple introduced the iPad, other companies have been trying to duplicate its success most notably with Google’s Android OS. Android has done a good job of creating a number of apps for its App Marketplace and all the tablets combined still trail the iPad. So why are Android tablets trailing Apple’s? There are a few reasons such as marketing, fanboydom, etc., however there is one that is most telling and has come to light with the HP announcement, price point!

All tablet manufacturers have priced their products at the same price point, or close to it, as Apple’s in the misunderstanding that is the “sweet” spot for tablets. It is….for Apple! HP was only in the tablet market for about month and upon entering did what every other company did, priced the Touchpad around the iPad price point. Within a few weeks they dropped the price $100 to help boost sales, which it did, but not enough for HP to continue. When the word got out that HP Touchpads could now be purchased for as little as $99 they flew off the shelves and it is almost impossible to find one. What drove this sell off? Price point!

While it would not be good business to sell quality tablets for less than it costs to manufacturer them, companies need to understand that simply blindly following another company does a number of things, or doesn’t do them as the case may be. One, it just makes the following company a perpetual number 2 since all they are doing is following. Second, it decreases innovation since all future products are really coming from one company with all others just replicating the same thing. Other tablet manufacturers need to understand that in order to effectively compete with Apple’s iPad they need to give consumers a reason to pick their product over the hype of the iPad AND aggressively price their offerings to entice consumers to purchase their products.

HP TOUCHPAD PRICES DROP SIGNIFICANTLY

In a memo sent to HP affiliates, the company issued the declaration to begin liquidating TouchPad inventories, with a price cut of $300 or more:

HP will be lowering the price of the TouchPad beginning Saturday 8/20/11. This is the lowest price ever for the TouchPad so please post it as soon as it goes live.

16GB TouchPad- $99; 32GB TouchPad - $149

The pricing may be set to go live tomorrow, but that hasn’t stopped some retailers. Best Buy Canada and Future Shop have already implemented the new pricing, and we expect others will follow through shortly.