Back in August, HP announced a huge $8 billion write-down stemming from the loss of value seen in Electronic Data Systems (EDS). HP bought the company in 2008 for $13.9 billion. As part of the announcement, the company sacked John Visentin, HP’s head of Enterprise Services and replaced him with temporarily with an EDS executive named Mike Nefkens.
Today, HP has made Nefkens’ position official. He is now HP’s executive vice president of Enterprise Services.
Nefkens joined EDS in 2001, and worked at Holland Chemical International NV for a decade before that.
“Mike has led some of our most successful account turnarounds and has already had a very positive impact on the business,” said Meg Whitman, HP president and CEO. “I’m confident in Mike’s ability to build our services business and contribute to HP’s long-term goals.”
HP certainly needs some account turnarounds at this point. The company just last month announced another huge write-down of $8.8 billion. This time, though, HP blamed most of the charge on its Autonomy subsidiary, accusing its former management of fraudulent accounting practices and misrepresenting the value of the company.
Sine that announcement, extensive finger-pointing has ensued between HP and former Autonomy CEO Mike Lynch. Lynch claims Autonomy’s value has tanked due to HP mismanagement and a corporate culture of infighting. HP has said it looks forward to Lynch and other former Autonomy executives testifying under penalty of perjury.