HP head favors 2016 candidate 'with experience in politics' over Fiorina

Source: The Guardian

On the day Hewlett-Packard split into two companies, the tech giant’s chief executive, Meg Whitman, said she backed “someone who had some experience in politics” for president rather than Carly Fiorina, a former HP CEO whose campaign for the White House is based on her business experience.

Fiorina, the first woman to run a Fortune 50 company and the only woman in the Republican field, was at HP from 1999 to 2005, when she left with a $21m payout. During her tenure, sales grew from $42bn to $87bn but net earnings fell from $3.1bn to $2.4bn and stock fell by 50%. In 2010, she fought and lost a US Senate election in California.

Hewlett-Packard formally split on Sunday, in a move announced a year ago. One new company will focus on computers and printers and the other will deal with hardware and service operations. Around 30,000 jobs are expected to go – the same number as went under Fiorina – on top of 55,000 already gone under Whitman. She will take charge of the hardware and service company, HP Enterprise.

In a conversation with significance for a Republican party torn asunder by “outsider” candidates, Whitman was asked by CNN’s Poppy Harlow why she was not backing Fiorina and instead endorsed New Jersey governor Chris Christie.

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/nov/01/carly-fiorina-hewlett-packard-meg-whitman