HP gives ProCurve a higher profile

HP viewed its ProCurve division as a stepchild under former CEO Carly Fiorina's tenure, but when Mark Hurd took over, the new CEO nurtered the unit from contributing a few hundred million dollars in annual sales to some $1 billion. According to this New York Times story, Fiorina rewarded her sales teams for pushing Cisco gear when selling HP boxes, despite ProCurve making competitive products. However, ProCurve still managed to become a "trusted supplier" of switches to SMBs, outflanking suppliers such as Nortel and 3Com, according to the story.

Now HP is pushing ProCurve head-to-head against Cisco and has given ProCurve a higher profile internally. According to the Times, this month, HP put ProCurve under its $38 billion Technology Solutions Group that's headed up by Executive VP, Ann Livermore. And Marius Hass, who as head of HP's strategy and corporate development group masterminded HP's $13.9 billion purchase of EDS, is now leading HP's networking business.  

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• Cisco
• Carly Fiorina
• HP
• HP ProCurve
• Mark Hurd
• ProCurve