(16-Feb-2012) After a tumultuous year for Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ), new CEO Meg Whitman brought the vendor back to its roots and delivered the messages channel partners wanted to hear in her keynote at the global partner conference Wednesday: HP is proudly a hardware company first and foremost, and its primary route to market will be through the channel.
Whitman took the helm at HP in September after former CEO Léo Apotheker led the company through a period that saw a major re-focus on software with theUS$10.3 billion acquisition of Autonomy, and the future of the personal systems group thrown up in the air with a strategic review that could have led to the sale or spin-off of the business unit.
With her first chance to formally address HP partners, Whitman wasted no time addressing the challenges of the past year for the vendor and its partners and reaffirming its commitment to the channel and the strategy going forward.