Hewlett Packard started laying people off this week, and on Wednesday it looked like the highest-profile team member yet would likely get his walking papers as the company's board of directors held a meeting to discuss getting rid of CEO Leo Apotheker. According to The New York Times, there's already a replacement lined up in the form of Meg Whitman, former CEO of eBay. Since leaving the online auction company, Whitman ran as the Republican nominee for California governor in 2010. Apotheker was brought on only a year ago to help stabilize the company after it fired his predecessor, Mark Hurd, for allegedly fudging expense reports, which sparked a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation. Apotheker steered the company as it debuted its TouchPad tablet computer, which failed so massively HP pulled it from shelves within a few weeks of the launch, and decided to surrender much of its mobile division. A Wall Street Journal story on Wednesday pointed out that HP's stock had jumped 8 percent on the news it might get rid of Apotheker.

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Adam Martin