HP Reorganizes

Hewlett-Packard Chairman and CEO Carly Fiorina said Wednesday that the company will reorganize, creating a new customer organization to be run by Executive Vice President Peter Blackmore and giving his responsibilities to HP Services chief Ann Livermore. Blackmore, who had been HP's executive vice president for enterprise systems, will be shifted over to run the new Customer Solutions Group, while Livermore will oversee the company's new Technology Solutions Group.

That group will include software and enterprise systems in addition to services.

When Fiorina was asked Tuesday whether such a reorganization was under way, she downplayed the speculation.

"When we're ready to make organizational announcements, we'll make them," Fiorina said.

Twenty-four hours later, HP made them.In an e-mail to employees, Fiorina said that "during the next few months, we will be taking the next, logical steps toward our goal of becoming the leading technology company in the world."

"This involves realigning some parts of our organization, changes that will take full effect in the second half," Fiorina said. "We are making these adjustments to our organization in response to recommendations of the recent ESG-HPS task force, which for the past six months has been helping us streamline our go-to-market operation."

Blackmore's new unit "will sell the entire HP portfolio of products and services. It will be accountable for developing new business opportunities for all of HP, deepening our customer relationships and capturing a greater share of our business and government customers' IT spend," Fiorina said.

Duane Zitzner, who has run HP's Personal Systems Group, will now take over responsibility for SMB activities at the company and report to Blackmore. Zitzner will also oversee a new, consolidated channels organization at the company.

The one, untouched group at HP will be its Imaging and Printing Group, led by Executive Vice President Vyomesh Joshi. His group will continue to also take charge of HP's consumer business, Fiorina said.