Leo Apothekar is out and Meg Whitman is in as Yahoo! and HP continue their odd competition for the most interesting performance by a governing board this past decade. Here's a quick recap of HP's ongoing  saga, courtesy of The Economist (22 Sep): "Whatever happens, the saga is another blow for a company that has lurched from one boardroom crisis to another. Mr Apotheker took the wheel at HP in November 2010 following the departure of Mark Hurd, who left abruptly amid stories of sexual indiscretions and problematic expense-reporting. Mr Hurd had taken over from Carly Fiorina, who was binned in 2005 after the firm’s profits plunged. A year later Patricia Dunn, HP’s then chairman, also departed after a scandal involving an investigation into suspected press leaks from HP directors."

This Board-level soap opera has left its mark.This week, HP ranked in the 41st percentile among the 17 companies comprising the Computer Processing Hardware sector. This ranking represents a 35 percentile drop from a ranking of 76 twelve months ago. Its exponentially weighted reputational ranking volatility is hovering around 460% while both the reputational vector and velocity are negative at 15% and 46% respectively.

Over the past few weeks, the median reputational metric of the Computer Processing Hardware sector has been stable at a relative ranking of 40%.  Meanwhile, the intangible asset fraction of the company continues to climb to more than 110% suggesting either major book asset write downs or additional leverage. The median for the sector is around 80%.

Economically, the performance is poor with a trailing twelve month return on equity that is underperforming the median of the peer group by 29.28% leading us to conclude that the expectations set by a board -- its reputation -- are material.