“We don’t want to be on the History Channel. We want to be on the news channel.”
–Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd in Fortune’s 2006 profile by Adam Lashinsky, when asked whether he would have done the Compaq deal orchestrated by his predecessor, Carly Fiorina. Hurd replaced Fiorina, who was fired in February 2005, and moved quickly to improve execution and revive morale. HP reported earnings today, beating Wall Street’s expectations with a 14% jump in third quarter profits.