HP names ex-SAP chief Apotheker as CEO

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Hewlett-Packard Co on Thursday named the former head of German software company SAP (SAP.XE)Leo Apotheker as chief executive in a surprise appointment that sent HP shares down 3 percent.

Apotheker spent more than two decades at German business software company SAP. He was named SAP co-chief executive in April 2008, and became its sole leader in July 2009. He resigned abruptly earlier this year.

Apotheker succeeds Mark Hurd, who was ousted from HP on August 6 for filing inaccurate expense reports related to a female marketing contractor.

Fort Pitt Capital analyst Kim Caughey expressed doubt about Apotheker moving from a software company to HP, a sprawling company that dominates the PC, server, IT services and printer businesses.

"SAP is a very different sort of company than HP, and that is my biggest concern," Caughey said. "The scope of SAP is very different, as are the customers. What does he know about hardware? That's the question."

But Wedbush Securities analyst Kaushik Roy said, "He can be an agent of change. Investors were focused on 'how do you bring back R&D, how do you bring back innovation?'"

HP's board also named Ray Lane as non-executive chairman. Lane is managing partner at venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and previously served as president and chief operating officer at Oracle Corp.

Both appointments are effective November 1, HP said.

The appointments come nearly two months after the controversial August 6 ouster of Hurd, which sent shockwaves through Silicon Valley and upset investors who credited him for turning the company around.

"The investment community wanted an outsider to be named CEO," said Gleacher & Co analyst Brian Marshall. "They view HP internally as a little bit dysfunctional in terms of all the issues they had in senior management in the last couple of years."

HP shares fell 3 percent to $40.80 in extended trading. The shares closed at $42.07 on the New York Stock Exchange.

(Reporting by Gabriel Madway. Editing by Robert MacMillan)