HP Dumps Ex-Palm CEO, Celebrates Mobile-free Future

From DailyTech: In a further blow to those hoping for a webOS revival Jon Rubinstein, the iconic Palm CEO who supervised the creation of the webOS-powered Pre, has been released from his executive post at Hewlett-Packard Comp. (HPQ).

HP has been on a mess roller coaster ride over the last year shuffling CEOs and even contemplating spinning off the heart of its company -- the consumer PC business. The change in leadership has also led HP to effectively abandon its hope of being a viable player in the mobile tablet/smart phone space.

The company blew $1.2B USD to acquire Palm Inc. in April 2010, in what seemed like a promising move for both companies at the time. Palm still had a legion of firm supporters, and while it was no longer the iPhone competitor it was once was (and which Android became) it still had a shot.

That shot was killed by HP's floundering board and hapless new executive leadership. The webOS product line was officially discontinued in Aug. 2011. Meanwhile HP seemed to be combing through its ranks removing all the one-time supporters of webOS.

After HP became the second major company in two years to fire Léo Apotheker from its CEO spot for poor performace, new CEO Meg Whitman reported shopped around webOS to prospective buyers. But her asking price of $1.2B USD -- what HP had paid for it before it desecrated the remains of Palm -- was reportedly considered laughable by serious buyer prospects like Samsung Electronics Comp., Ltd.'s (KS:005930).

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