tim-cook

First, the CEO chatter. Apple COO Tim Cook has been mentioned multiple times as a possible successor to former HP CEO Mark Hurd, who was ousted in August 2010. But on September 28, Cook allegedly told a Wall Street analyst that he had no plans to join Apple, according to Barron’s. To get a feel for Cook’s talents, check out this Fortune Magazine 2008 profile, which positioned Cook as a potential successor to Steve Jobs during Jobs’ health crisis.

When HP began its CEO search in August 2010, The VAR Guy figured HP Executive VP Ann Livermore would be a top candidate. Some pundits think HP is now leaning toward an external candidate, but recent chatter at the TechCrunch Disrupt conferences suggested that HP Executive VP Todd Bradley may now be a leading candidate for the post. Either way, a Gartner analyst predicts HP will name its next CEO before the end of October 2010.

Marching Forward

Even without a new CEO at the helm, HP continues to march forward. The company provided an upbeat financial outlook during an analyst meeting earlier this week, and HP also completed the 3Par acquisition — which could help the company’s cloud, storage and virtualization efforts.

On the channel front, Channel Chief Stephen DiFranco is expected to attend Ingram Micro VTN (Oct. 4-6, San Francisco), a conference that attracts scores of influential VARs. In addition to promoting traditional IT products to channel partners, DiFranco apparently has been formulating some key ideas around managed services and recurring revenue for partners. Before joining HP, DiFranco was the key person leading Lenovo’s managed services push within the IT channel.

Additional reporting by David Courbanou. Sign up for The VAR Guy’s Weekly Newsletter; Webcasts and Resource Center; and via RSS; Facebook;   Identi.ca; Twitter and VARtweet.