Updated version 3 - HP appoints former GlaxoSmithKline CEO Emma Walmsley as Chief Executive Officer

Stock price information was added in paragraph 5, and analyst comments were added in paragraphs 4 and 6

Anzar Mehraj

Reuters, November 4 - HP Inc (HPQ.N) on Wednesday appointed former GSK CEO and Microsoft director Emma Walmsley as chief executive officer, to lead the PC maker through the current memory chip shortage crisis—a situation that has driven up prices and triggered a severe industry downturn.

She will take over from interim CEO Bruce Broussard on January 4, with Broussard replacing Chip Bergh as chairman of the board.

Walmsley led GSK from 2017 until last December and, despite having no previous experience in technology hardware, will now take the helm at HP, helping the company revive its struggling PC market and seize the opportunity presented by demand for AI devices.

Vitor Madeira, senior market specialist at Capital.com, said: "Although Walmsley doesn't have a hardware background, she has led major corporate restructurings, including the spin-off of Haleon from GSK, which is more in line with HP’s current needs."

The Palo Alto, California-based company's shares rose 4.6% in early trading.

Madeira pointed out that the key test will be whether she can maintain profitability during the industry downturn and, before memory costs come down, find new areas of growth beyond traditional PCs (such as AI devices).

Like peers Dell Technologies (DELL.N), Apple (AAPL.O), and Lenovo (0992.HK), HP is deeply affected by the global memory chip shortage, as large-scale AI data center construction is consuming most of the available capacity.

This pressure was evident in HP’s third-quarter results announced in August (link): while that segment saw revenue climb 18% due to a shift toward higher-value, higher-margin products including AI PCs, PC shipments still dropped 16%.

In a document filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in September (link), the company stated it would not provide financial guidance for fiscal 2027 and predicted that industry-wide PC shipments would see a mid-single-digit decline next year.

Before joining GSK, Walmsley spent 17 years at L'Oréal and served as a director at Microsoft for seven years.

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