HP CEO Mark Hurd Was Warned About Spending $13.9 Billion On EDS

As HP writes down $8 billion from its acquisition of EDS in 2008, a certain a Wall Street analyst gets to say, "I told you so!" if he wants to.
HP's $13.9 billion purchase of EDS was then HP-CEO Mark Hurd's signature deal. On the day that he announced it, he faced analysts. (Here's a full transcript on Scribd.)
About halfway through the call, Bank of Montreal analyst Keith Bachman points out that EDS is no great catch. It had been its own "restructuring story over the last couple of years" with flat revenues and a stock that had fallen by 30% over the last 18 months.

"So clearly you are making a bet that you can perform better than how EDS has executed." Bachman said and then asked Hurd what exactly will HP be "bringing to the party"?

Hurd's answer: HP brought its good brand name to the party:

'When you combine our position, our brand, our outsourcing business, their position, their capabilities, listen, we need to go to the market and compete and be able to grow at market rates," Hurd said.

Bachman wasn't having it.

"But Mark, sorry to push back, would you agree, looking at the characteristics, I would think at a minimum this is going to slowdown HP's revenue growth," Bachman replied.

Naturally Hurd disagrees, but then he hedges -- just a little.

"If we can't turn that into an opportunity to go to the market and compete and be able to compete at roughly market rates, then I think that we would have to say we are all not going to be thrilled," he answers.

Funny thing is, now that Hurd is working for HP's competitor, Oracle, he probably is thrilled.

Newest HP ultrabook faces shipment delays

Hewlett-Packard is still trying to get its latest and greatest ultrabook out the door. The design is HP"s thinnest and lightest ultrabook to date.

HP's Envy Spectre XT: its newest high-end ultrabook was supposed to ship in early June.

Hewlett-Packard is having a tough time fulfilling orders for its newest high-end ultrabook.
That would be the Envy Spectre XT, a 13-inch, three-pound, sub-0.7-inch-thick laptop sporting a mostly metal design and Intel's newest "Ivy Bridge" processors.
The model, announced in early May, had been expected to ship as early as June 8 but orders have been backlogged.
"HP Envy SpectreXT orders are taking longer to fulfill than HP expected," an HP spokesperson told CNET. "We are contacting all customers who have placed orders to provide updated expected delivery dates."

An order for the Spectre XT placed today on HP's Web site is showing a delivery date of August 27, 2012.
The newest Spectre (XT stands for "extra thin") starts at $999. That gets you Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, an Intel Core i5-3317U processor, Intel HD Graphics 4000, 4GB DDR3 system memory, a 128GB solid-state Drive, backlit keyboard, a 13.3-inch LED- backlit Display (1366x768), a two-year warranty, and extras such as a two-year Norton Internet Security subscription, and Adobe Photoshop Elements 10 & Adobe Premiere Elements 10.

The Spectre XT was announced on the heels of the pricier and bigger 14-inch Envy Spectre. (Spectre is HP's premium laptop brand.) The latter is a novel design that packs a 14-inch screen into a 13-inch chassis and boasts a large helping of Gorilla glass on the front and back of the display and on the chassis.