As if the bad press and subsequent stock value drop HP suffered when it canceled the TouchPad tablet and put the future of webOS into question, now the company is facing a shareholder lawsuit for allegedly misleading investors. HP surprised investors in August when it cancelled its iPad competitor after only 49 days on the market and announced that its PC business — the largest in the world — might be sold or spun off.
HP hit with lawsuit over TouchPad’s demise
In the lawsuit, according to Reuters, Richard Gammel claimed HP led investors to believe it planned to continue selling and supporting webOS-based products. News that the company’s PC business was in question came as a surprise to investors and analysts, too.
Following HP’s announcement, the company’s stock dropped some 20 percent in value in a single day.
HP had hoped its webOS-based TouchPad tablet could compete with Apple’s market dominating iPad. After several months of hype, however, the tablet failed to draw consumer interest when it hit store shelves.
Mr. Gemmel’s lawsuit is asking for unspecified damages for all HP shareholders that purchased the company’s stock between November 22, 2010 and August 18, 2011 because, he argues, the stock was artificially inflated due to withheld information.
HP has not commented on the lawsuit.
8 Comments Leave Your Own
If Steinbeck were around to write a book about 2011 being the year of the tablet, he might title it, “Of Tablets and Tombstones”.
Good one!
Showdown at the OS Corral
The Longest Delay
Could be about a number of companies and products.
Love it.
Just caught that you posted this little nugget. Yee-haa.
And while I’m at it, let pose a question: Would it be too soon for Hemingway to pen, “A Farewell to RIM’s”, or from Daniel Keyes, “Flowers for WebOS”?
Of course I’ve always thought of the iPhone as
The Lord of the Rings
Certainly, Lord of the profits.
I have to admit, I sympathise with investors and analysts who felt a bit wrong-footed by both the Touchpad/WebOS waterloo and the PC enterprise pithing.
You can argue that the trajectory was all wrong, but HP’s caving in the tablet battle is reminiscent of Roberto Dur?n’s ‘No Mas!’ 8th round withdrawal in his rematch against Sugar Ray Leonard; in other words, I’m not going to win, so let me quit before I lose. Whether the charge against either is correct, backers did not see it coming; hence the feeling of being let down, perhaps betrayed.
As for the PCs, if you were the poor
bastardsodbloke in IT who just kitted your entire corporation with brand spanking new HPs, you’d probably be feeling a bit sub-brilliant right about now, rather as if you’d just invited your company to take a ride aboard the Hindenburg.No, book titles are far more fun than such thoughts. Although Poe might pen ‘The Premature Burial’ with the HP tablet in mind, or perhaps he’d style it, The Tell-Tale Touchpad.
For Whom the Phone Tolls
Add your comment