HP to replace Hurd with ex-SAP chief

SAN FRANCISCO - Hewlett-Packard Co. has hired recently discarded SAP AG executive Leo Apotheker to steer the technology company as it tries to prove it can thrive without its previous leader, Mark Hurd.

Thursday's announcement ends HP's nearly two-month search to fill the void created when its board ended Hurd's five-year reign as chief executive officer amid allegations of sexual harassment and deceptive expense reports.

Apotheker, 57, spent most of his career at business-software-maker SAP before being promoted to CEO in 2008. SAP has U.S. operations in Newtown Square, Pa. Apotheker lasted less than two years in the job. SAP decided not to renew his contract when it expired nearly eight months ago, largely because SAP's financial performance had not been meeting investor expectations.

HP named another rumored candidate for the CEO position, Ray Lane, as its nonexecutive chairman. Lane, 63, has been a partner at venture capital firm Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers, but is best known in Silicon Valley as the former chief operating officer at SAP rival Oracle Corp.

Although he was hailed for helping Oracle recover from an accounting scandal, Lane was dumped by its mercurial CEO, Larry Ellison, a decade ago. In an ironic twist, Ellison hired Hurd as his top lieutenant after blasting HP's board for forcing Hurd out.

Most analysts expected HP to hire a CEO from within after going with two outsiders who clashed with the board. Before Hurd arrived, HP had been run by Carly Fiorina, now a Republican candidate for Senate in California.