Hewlett-Packard has named Bill Veghte chief operating officer and George Kadifa head of its software division. HP software engineers should keep a keen eye on Kadifa, a man who Business Insider describes as a "software company turnaround specialist" -- in other words, a potential hatchet man. Kadifa comes from private equity firm Silver Lake Partners and his previous IT experience includes stints at Oracle and hosting provider Corio, which was purchased by IBM. He's replacing Veghte, who previously led the software unit -- an area HP has wanted to expand. But with Kadifa in the post, it's unclear how much growing will take place. Veghte will continue to lead Autonomy, which the company acquired last year for $10.3 billion. Autonomy's co-founder and CEO Mike Lynch, however, wasn't as lucky in the restructuring. He was one of the first to go. Lynch's exile set a chain reaction in motion, with about 250 of the company's 2,000 employees leaving. CRN reports that Autonomy's entire C-level management team has departed, complaining of HP's bureaucracy. Meanwhile, Lynch told The Telegraph that HP's decision not to sell or spin off its PC division fundamentally changed the plans for Autonomy. In March, CEO Meg Whitman said the
PC and printer groups would be combined. Business Insider also reports those in the PC division aren't feeling secure in their jobs, even though HP retook the lead in the worldwide client PC market (from Apple) during the first quarter. They fear their jobs will be eliminated or sent overseas.
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