[DevX101]

Am I the only one noticing some latent sexism in some of these comments?

I view Whitman's role with Ebay as comparable to Eric Schmidt and Google. Both joined about 2 years about their respective companies were founded and made them #1 in each of their target sectors.

I don't think anyone here would seriously question that Eric Schmidt could run HP (not that he'd want to).

But reading through these comments, I'm getting the impression people think she's unqualified to run HP, even with her impressive track record and having been on the board of HP to understand what's actually happening there.

So is it me, or am I reading to much into this?

[benmccann]

Simply because someone thinks that one particular woman might not be great at one particular job does not make them a sexist. Also, I don't think success at Ebay and Google are exactly comparable. Ebay is a dual-sided market. Once they became dominant it'd be very hard to unseat them. In this environment it's very possible Ebay was able to succeed in spite of Meg Whitman not because of her. She made some very good moves like acquiring PayPal and some very bad moves like acquiring Skype. I don't have much of an opinion on how Meg Whitman would do in the role, but I think HP's board royally screwed up and will not make the job easier. They hired Apotheker, approved of his acquisitions, and never gave his strategy a chance to work before deciding to fire the guy. HP's board needs to be replaced.

[9999]

People think she's unqualified to run HP precisely because of her track record. During her tenure at eBay she made many terrible decisions that did long lasting damage and ultimately weakened the company. Furthermore, she suffocated any innovation within the company. HP was once a true engineer's company, it had the reputation of being one of the best places to work as an engineer, hands down. The board of HP needs to hire someone that can rekindle that spirit, and Meg Whitman inspires nothing but loathing in a huge swath of the population. Her gender has nothing to do with it.