From the Associated Press:
 ===================================================================================

March 30, 2005
Hewlett-Packard to Ask Hurd to Retool Business Strategy
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 11:52 a.m. ET

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A Hewlett-Packard Co. director said Wednesday that
the board would look to newly named chief executive Mark Hurd to recommend
sweeping changes in strategy at the ailing computer and printer maker.

HP director Patricia C. Dunn, who headed the executive search committee
that announced Hurd's appointment Tuesday, said the board would ask Hurd to
make major decisions about the company -- including whether to break HP
into two or more pieces and how to improve financial performance in all
five divisions.

That's a stark contrast to the widely perceived notion that HP's board
selected Hurd because he agreed to follow the business strategy of his
predecessor, Carly Fiorina. The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times
reported Wednesday that Hurd would steer HP in the same direction it has
been going for years -- in particular that he would keep the diversified
technology concern intact.

Actively soliciting strategy decisions from the CEO also is a departure
from comments of HP directors as recently as last month. On Feb. 9,
directors ousted Fiorina, a marketing executive who spearheaded the
company's $19 billion acquisition of Compaq Computer Co., saying they
didn't have a problem with the business strategy -- only that she didn't
execute it quickly enough.

``Strategy is a living, breathing thing, and it's the responsibility of the
CEO to recommend strategy, and I'm sure Mark will do that,'' Dunn said
Wednesday during a 20-minute conference call with financial analysts.

Hewlett-Packard shares slipped 3 cents to $21.75 in morning trading on the
New York Stock Exchange after rising 10 percent in the previous session.
Its shares have traded in a range of $16.08 and $23.75 over the past 52 weeks.

Hurd was a unanimous pick of HP's board of directors and will assume the
CEO responsibilities next week. During the conference call, he refused to
provide details about how he would lead HP, insisting that he will spend
several months studying the company's operations before making changes.

``I don't know any other way to do it other than to get under every single
piece of the business ... and meet every single person I can possibly
meet,'' said Hurd, 48, who has spent the last 25 years at Dayton,
Ohio-based NCR.

Hurd dismissed speculation that he would follow a business strategy similar
to that of NCR, a computer services company that operates ATMs and data
warehouses that store countless bits of information from corporate customers.

Before he took the helm of NCR, Hurd was NCR president and chief operating
officer and led NCR's lucrative Teradata warehouse division.

Starting in the late '90s, shareholders questioned whether NCR should spin
off the unit. Hurd refused. But that decision doesn't mean he'll keep HP in
tact, Hurd said.

``It would be wrong for me to try to take the formula I used at NCR and try
to use it at HP,'' he said.

HP's long-stagnant stock jumped more than 10 percent Tuesday when Hurd
confirmed that he'd take the job.

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