Update 4:35 p.m. Perhaps this is the kind of thing that Lane is talking about. From James B. Stewart in today's NY Times:

Interviews with several current and former directors and people close to them involved in the search that resulted in the hiring of Mr. Apotheker reveal a board that, while composed of many accomplished individuals, as a group was rife with animosities, suspicion, distrust, personal ambitions and jockeying for power that rendered it nearly dysfunctional.

Among their revelations: when the search committee of four directors narrowed the candidates to three finalists, no one else on the board was willing to interview them. And when the committee finally chose Mr. Apotheker and again suggested that other directors meet him, no one did. Remarkably, when the 12-member board voted to name Mr. Apotheker as the successor to the recently ousted chief executive, Mark Hurd, most board members had never met Mr. Apotheker.

HP shares were down nearly five percent on the market today.

One person who thinks the move is just swell: Carly Fiorina, one of Whitman's predecessors as HP CEO and her co-loser last November in big statewide elections. She conveyed her congrats today via Tweet:

http://twitter.com/#!/CarlyforCA/status/116989382564659200

In terms of Whitman's political career, or lack of it, KQED Sacramento Bureau Chief John Myers says that when he talked to her shortly after the gubernatorial election, she seemed hesitant to ever run for office again. Myers says today's announcement feels like an affirmation of that.

Update 3:35p.m. Check out this prediction from tech psychic Robert Cringely, dated Feb 23, 2011.

I don’t think Leo Apotheker is going to survive long as CEO of Hewlett Packard. This is not based on any inside information, just my own pondering. And when Apotheker does go down, I’m pretty sure I know who will take his place...

Then there’s Meg Whitman, who expected at this point to have resigned from the HP board to spend all her time running California as governor. But that didn’t happen, so now what is she to do? You can only get so many pedicures. She’ll eventually get around to hip-checking Apotheker and taking his job. Meg can knock back brewskies as well as any man and will probably fill those CEO shoes even better than Apotheker.

Original post
Yesterday news broke that HP was thinking of dumping CEO Leo Apotheker and replacing him with Meg Whitman, who slummed it as the GOP gubernatorial candidate before making a billion as the CEO of eBay.

Today, Kara Swisher of AllThingsD is saying the switch is nearly a done deal:

Former eBay CEO Meg Whitman is poised to be named the new CEO of Hewlett-Packard later today after the markets are closed, said multiple sources close to the situation.

The full board of HP, which is meeting today in Silicon Valley, has not officially voted on move and the situation could certainly change, sources said it is nearly a done deal. Full article

The market can't seem to make up its mind whether this is a great thing, a good thing, or a no-thing. HP shares shot up yesterday when the news broke, but lost much of that gain during the day and after-hours.

Maybe coverage like this has something to do with that ambivalence:

Leo ApothekerLeo Apotheker

Meg Whitman Replaces Apotheker as HP CEO; HP Chair: "It's...open season to write about this board."