I convinced HP's board to buy Palm and watched them kill it (philmckinney.substack.com)

Article summary

The author, HP's former Chief Technology Officer, recounts how they convinced the company's board to acquire Palm for $1.2 billion, only to see the acquisition fail due to poor management and a lack of vision. The author attributes the failure to systematic thinking errors that can kill breakthrough technology. The acquisition was intended to help HP enter the mobile market, but it ultimately ended in disappointment. The author reflects on the experience to identify lessons for preventing similar disasters in the future.

Main themes

• tech industry failures
• poor management
• lack of vision
• innovation and disruption
• mobile market trends
• corporate leadership and culture

What commenters say

• The acquisition of Palm was doomed from the start because HP's existing leadership was not committed to the mobile market.
• HP's failure to successfully integrate Palm was a result of poor management and a lack of technical expertise at the top.
• The company's focus on short-term financial gains rather than long-term investment in innovation and technology led to its decline.
• The acquisition of Palm was not a bad idea, but the execution was poor, and the company failed to give the new technology the time and investment it needed to succeed.
• The failure of HP to capitalize on its acquisition of Palm is a symptom of a broader problem of poor leadership and a lack of vision in the tech industry.
• Some commenters disagree about the merits of webOS and its multitasking capabilities, with some defending its innovative features and others criticizing its limitations.