H-P packs off power girl Fiorina

<div class="section1"><div align="left" style="position:relative; left: -2"><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" align="left" border="1" width="32.1%"> <colgroup> <col width="100.0%" /> </colgroup> <tr valign="top"> <td width="100.0%" colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="" valign:="" top="" background-color:="" f3f3f3=""> <div class="Normal"><img src="/photo/1016719.cms" alt="/photo/1016719.cms" border="0" /></div> </td> </tr> </table></div> <div class="Normal">For years, she was routinely ranked the most powerful and influential businesswoman in the world.<br /><br />She was the only woman to head one of the 30 Dow Jones blue-chip companies; the first woman to hold all three top posts — president, CEO and chairman — at a major computer company. <br /><br />But on Wednesday, none of that counted as Hewlett-Packard showed the door to its high-profile CEO, Carly Fiorina. <br /><br />Fiorina was "asked to resign due to differences in strategies between Carly and the board," said a company spokesman, Michael Moeller. It was an abrupt end to a tenure that began in July 1999.<br /><br />Reports of her differences with the board had been doing the rounds for some time now, with the directors reportedly keen that she delegate some key day-to-day responsibilities. <br /><br />Of course, nobody was willing to say anything on record (recently, when asked about her relations with the board, Fiorina crisply replied, "Excellent" and moved on to the next question). <br /><br />Even so, the sudden exit came as a shock, especially since she has emerged battered but triumphant from bitter battles in the past. <br /><br />In 2002, she put her job on the line while pushing through H-P''s $19-billion acquisition of Compaq.<script language="javascript">doweshowbellyad=0; </script></div> </div>