All Eyes on HP’s Chief Executive, Stocks Tumble

The raging controversy of the Hewlett-Packard's spying scandal has hit the doors of the chief executive's office. The news rattled the investors and sent the shares of HP in a tizzy. The shares dropped more than 5 percent Thursday.

Roger Kay, an analyst at Endpoint Technologies opined, "Mark Hurd has done a lot to pull HP together. He has shown a lot of good leadership and until now he was riding above the fray. If he is perceived to be in jeopardy; it's not a good thing."

Speculations were rife that the Chief Executive Officer, Mark Hurd, who has been instrumental in HP’s recovery and is believed to be scandal-free, would lose his job and leave the company without control or direction in a time of crisis.

Prior to this, Investors had largely ignored the scandal and had sent HP's shares slightly higher over the two weeks since the news erupted. However, now the reverse has happened as the shady tactics have been linked to Hurd.

The concerns emerged, after a report in the Washington Post said that internal e-mails sent by Ms Dunn indicated that Mr. Hurd had approved a "sting" operation against a journalist, suspected of receiving confidential information from within HP.

In response, Hurd plans to hold a news conference on Friday. He said,” This has nothing to do with the strategy or operations of HP…..What began as an effort to prevent the leaks of confidential information from HP's boardroom ended up heading in directions that were never anticipated."

Mr. Lockyer, the California attorney general, said that he did not know yet, as to who would be found guilty among senior officials in the company. He said, “We haven’t ruled anything in or out …we want to know who committed the wrongdoing.”

Under mounting pressure the company promised that Mr. Hurd would answer questions at a news conference Friday afternoon, after the stock market’s close. The timing of the news conference has also put question marks. Traditionally in corporate America, bad news is delivered on a Friday after the markets close.

Well wishers of Hurd and HP are keeping their fingers crossed.