Meg Whitman Will Succeed Apotheker at HP

Hewlett-Packard replaced Chief Executive Officer Leo Apotheker with Meg Whitman, asking the former head of an e-commerce company to turn around a computer maker plagued by slowing growth and management missteps.

Apotheker, CEO for less than 11 months, was ousted after cutting sales forecasts three times and making strategy shifts that blindsided investors. Hewlett- Packard also said Chairman Ray Lane will become executive chairman. Whitman’s challenge will be boosting revenue while assuaging investors, whose dismay fueled a 47 percent plunge in Hewlett-Packard stock under Apotheker. Her experience at consumer-oriented companies such as EBay, Procter & Gamble and Hasbro may leave her ill-equipped to run Hewlett- Packard’s business-computing divisions, said Shaw Wu, an analyst at Sterne, Agee & Leach.