Amidst a growing movement to force out up to five of Hewlett Packard's board due to mishandling of the company's Autonomy purchase, shareholders have narrowly re-elected the existing members. Targeted members included John Hammergren, G. Kennedy Thompson, Marc Adreessen, Rajiv Gupta, and executive chairman Raymond Lane.
Just before Hewlett Packard's March 20 shareholder meeting, a pair of proxy advisers are pushing for an ouster of several members of the board of directors. Investment firm Glass Lewis has recommended shareholders vote to remove venture capitalist Marc Adreessen, Rajiv Gupta, John Hammergren, and G. Kennedy Thompson from the board, with another firm -- ISS -- suggesting the removal of Hammergren and Thompson also. Both firms blame the directors for inadequate "due diligence" related to the controversial acquisition of British software company Autonomy that has dragged the company's financials down.
Addressing its own issues with the Chinese labor force used to manufacture its devices, Hewlett Packard today issued new standards and practices for assembly companies. HP has declared that all workers must be voluntary, free to choose not to work, or quit if displeased. Furthermore, if students are selected for work, the work must be relevant to their studies. Limits on the quantity of student workers has been addressed as well.
HP has been granted a patent for a see-through display, opening up more possibilities for augmented reality computing. Originally filed in 2006 with the USPTO, the patent describes a way for people to see both an image on-screen and whatever lies behind the monitor itself, using a system of light-reflective slats on a transparent panel, according to the BBC.
While speaking to the press at a consumer event in London on Tuesday, Hewlett Packard’s vice president of the Personal Systems Group Eric Cador again confirmed the company will soon release notebooks with TouchSmart technology and software. As per a report from Pocket-lint, HP unveiled a new TouchSmart desktop at the event. In addition to confirming the new notebooks, Cador dispelled a myth about HP’s developing an operating system that would be an alternative to Microsoft’s Windows Vista.
