The Meg Whitman Hire: Another HP Misstep?

If you are unaware:

Hewlett Packard, the struggling technology giant, has named Meg Whitman as the new CEO of the company.

HP has come under fire for making the hire so hastily:

Swapping Apotheker, who has now been ousted from two high-profile CEO jobs in two years, for Whitman is a decision designed to stem investor fury over a series of questionable strategy moves.

Analysts are worried about Whitman's technology experience. It seems like HP has struggled because it has fallen behind in the ever evolving technology sector and bringing in a candidate that does not fit into that mold can be concerning:

“Our concern would be that she doesn’t have a lot of enterprise and technology experience,” said Jayson Noland, a tech analyst at Robert W. Baird & Co. told the Post. “She’s not the most obvious choice to me.”

HP has vehemently defended the hire:

"If we thought there was a better choice outside, we would have conducted the search," Mr. Lane said.

Lane has heaped even more praise on Whitman:

In response to doubts about Ms. Whitman’s qualifications to run H-P, Ray Lane compares Meg Whitman to Ronald Reagan! He says “Ronald Reagan was an actor. He turned out to be a pretty good president.”

These are probably attempts to appease shareholders. HP stock has dropped off since the announcement was made:

Bernstein is not impressed:

The Street is duly unimpressed with Whitman's appointment:

Scott McNealy, former CEO of Sun Microsystems, is a Meg Whitman fan and says she's a good fit for HP:

“I am a big fan of Meg Whitman and she surrounds herself with good people,” said McNealy in a phone interview. He argued that she will bring much-needed stability. “I am bullish on Meg, but not bullish on how HP got there.”

He's not worried about her familiarity with tech either:

“She understands tech, even though she didn’t come from the computer industry. Heck, even Lou Gerstner (ex-CEO of IBM) didn’t come from the computer business.”

I'm not convinced by Whitman. I see that she did a great job with EBay, but I don't know if she can do the same with HP. They are in different businesses. From what I've seen, it seems like she is the flashy hire. I think the board is banking on her name brand appeal to make up for some of what they've lost in the last year in terms of credibility. However, what would have restored credibility in the best way was hiring the best candidate to lead HP. Now, Whitman could turn this ship around. Regardless, I feel HP could have been more thorough in finding a new CEO.