New AMD CEO Rory Read carries one heck of a crystal ball. To wit, Read seems to have predicted — three months ago — that Hewlett-Packard may exit the PC industry. Skeptical? Take a look at this exclusive FastChat video from The VAR Guy, filmed in May 2011. Right around the 2 minute and 18 second mark, Read — a Lenovo executive at the time — seems to predict Hewlett-Packard will eventually exit the PC industry.
Read states: “Going and buying a services entity: Wrong solution. It forces a competition [with resellers]. Our competition is clearly moving in a services direction. Do you even think they’ll be in the PC segment in three, five years? Maybe. Maybe not.”
Listen and watch for yourself:
Admittedly, Read didn’t mention HP by name. And both HP and Dell have major services initiatives under way. But The VAR Guy thinks Read was referring to HP — not Dell — potentially exiting the PC industry, since Dell is basically synonymous with PCs.
Fast forward to the present, and Hewlett-Packard is considering the potential sale or spin-off of its $40 billion PC organization. And earlier today, Read officially made the jump from Lenovo president to AMD CEO.
Any more predictions, Mr. Read? You certainly got The VAR Guy’s attention with the last one.
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Seriously? I did not see where he said they would “exit.” He just said the competition is not dedicated like they are and “wondered” where they will be in 3-5 years. But clearly, he didn’t say likely exit. Not near a crystal ball, more like a brick throw.
JD: Hmmm… Perhaps The VAR Guy is reading too deeply between the lines. But our resident blogger still thinks Read spotted HP’s potential exit before most people contemplated the move.
-TVG