New CEO Apotheker seeks to restore HP's 'lost soul'

CEO since Nov. 1, Apotheker is breaking with Hurd's legacy in other ways. He's overhauling HP's $41 billion personal computer division and says he will use acquisitions to expand in the software market, dominated by rivals just as Oracle and IBM. Apotheker is reversing Hurd's emphasis on cost-cutting in a bid to improve product quality and spur home-grown research.

Apotheker, a former CEO of German software maker SAP, takes the helm of a company facing slowing revenue growth and accelerating competition in cloud computing, a fast-growing innovation that delivers software and storage via the Internet.

Apotheker says he as well wants to make better use of WebOS, the computer operating system acquired last year when Hewlett-Packard purchased smart phone maker Palm Inc. for $1.2 billion. Starting at once year, every one of the PCs shipped by HP will include the ability to run WebOS should the contingency arise to Microsoft Corp.'s Windows, Apotheker said.

The move is aimed at enticing software developers to create a wider range of applications that would differentiate Hewlett-Packard PCs, printers, tablets and phones from those sold by rivals.