SAN FRANCISCO — Hewlett-Packard Co.'s board of directors has ousted Carly Fiorina, the high-gloss chief executive who hobnobbed with Hollywood stars and graced dozens of magazine covers but who ultimately was unable to meet Wall Street's expectations for the technology behemoth.
Grumbling about Fiorina, whom Fortune magazine once proclaimed the most powerful woman in business, began building soon after she masterminded the 2002 acquisition of Compaq Computer Corp. The takeover sparked a bitter proxy and court fight, led by the son of one of HP's founders.
But her termination at a board meeting Tuesday afternoon, which was announced early Wednesday, surprised many investors.
The move came as HP finds itself struggling to improve the profitability of its diverse units, which make printers, personal computers, calculators and high-end servers. It is also shifting into home entertainment products -- gadgets for the living room that deliver music and video. With about $80 billion in annual sales, HP is somewhat smaller than IBM Corp. but about 10 times the size of Apple Computer Inc.
Shares of Palo Alto-based HP rose nearly 7% after Fiorina's dismissal was announced. They have fallen more than 50% since she was named CEO in July 1999.
Over that time, Fiorina, 50, became one of the most recognizable executives in America and, at least publicly, came to personify her company the way Bill Gates is synonymous with Microsoft Corp. and Steve Jobs embodies Apple Computer.
She appeared to be equally at ease with political leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and celebrities at the Academy Awards. Warren Beatty once told her that he wanted his wife, Annette Bening, to play Fiorina if a movie ever was made of her life.
Fiorina, who studied medieval history before earning an MBA and joining AT&T Corp. in 1980, also attracted attention because no other woman had reached such heights in the male-dominated world of high tech. She was the first woman to lead a Fortune 100 company, and her hiring was seen as opening the door to future high-ranking female executives.
"I feel sad that we have one fewer female CEO," said Patricia Fili-Krushel, executive vice president of administration at Time Warner Inc. At the same time, though, Fili-Krushel said she didn't think gender had anything to do with Fiorina's dismissal.
"This shows that you treat women the same way you treat men, promoting them if they perform and firing them if they don't," she said.
In the end, HP's board said it was dissatisfied with Fiorina's "execution," particularly in an era when the lines between the high-tech, consumer electronics and entertainment industries are blurring and home computers -- once considered exotic -- are now relatively cheap commodities.
HP was once the top PC maker but lost that spot to Dell Inc. in 2003. HP's printer operation remains profitable, but the company's overall earnings have been dragged down by the cutthroat computer business and money-losing ventures in televisions, projectors and color photocopiers. To pare costs, Fiorina laid off thousands of workers.
"They gave her a chance to step up and take the challenge, and she didn't," said analyst Mark Stahlman of brokerage Caris & Co. "All the glamour aside, she's not the right one to grow the company. HP needs a Steve Jobs, somebody who can bridge the computer world with Hollywood, who understands technology and inspires growth."
Many observers said Fiorina was distracted by the pressure of trying to prove the wisdom of HP's $19-billion merger with Compaq, a deal opposed by board member Walter Hewlett. (His father, Bill, founded HP in 1939 in a Palo Alto garage with Stanford University classmate David Packard.)
They also said she spread herself so thin -- never finding a strong No. 2 executive to rely on -- that she couldn't concentrate on HP's biggest challenges.
"The board reviews leadership results on an ongoing basis, and the change is in the best interests of the company," said Patricia C. Dunn, an HP board member who has taken over Fiorina's position as chairwoman. "We think the job is very reliant on hands-on execution, and we felt that a new set of capabilities was called for."
Fiorina occasionally appeared at White House events, rubbing elbows with the likes of then-Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and Vice President Dick Cheney. She also advised Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger as he set up his new administration.
The circles she frequented fueled rumors in Silicon Valley that she was interested in a second career in entertainment or politics. Some wags have joked that they savor a 2008 presidential race pitting Fiorina, a Republican, against Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.).
Fiorina always scoffed at such rumors, telling reporters and employees that she planned to stay at HP for the long haul.
