No Traces Places

PALO ALTO, Calif. (TheStreet) -- Almost one year ago, I wrote here that former Hewlett-Packard(HPQ) CEO Mark Hurd was the emperor with no clothes. Most on Wall Street have revered Hurd as the consummate guy who would execute and meet Wall Street's expectations. He sounded good -- always in control -- and he certainly seemed much more together than his predecessor, Carly Fiorina.

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In my article, I laid out the case for why Hurd was not as dazzling a CEO as many thought and also why he was a risky asset for Hewlett-Packard moving forward.

Although most observers seemed to agree that Hurd did a great job turning around Hewlett-Packard, I pointed out that Hurd's magic really ran out after his first two and a half years on the job. In those early years, HP's stock went up 137%. Over the last two and a half years, however, H-P's shares are down 20%. Although that performance beats the S&P 500, it badly trails rival IBM(IBM), where shares are up 20% over the same period.

I knew this guy was a snake the second I met him -- HP will never be the same after Flighty Carly and Numbnuts Hurd... I have a strong disdain for both...