Meg Whitman's warning sends HP's shares tumbling Coming just after the anniversary of her first year in the job, Ms Whitman's frank assessment of the company's condition sent its shares tumbling to the lowest in ten years. HP lacks a "sharp, competitive focus," and must "work a lot harder" to bring new products onto the market, Ms Whitman told analysts in California. The former CEO of eBay was parachuted into the top job at HP after her predecessor Leo Apotheker was ousted. Ms Whitman said that the frequent changes at the top of the company had caused "multiple inconsistent strategic choices, and frankly some significant executional miscues." With PC sales in decline, Ms Whitman is stepping up the company's research spend on new products and sticking with Mr Apotheker's strategy of expanding into software and data services. That expansion included the $10.3bn (6.4bn pound) acquisition last year of Autonomy, Britain's biggest software company. However, with the overall PC market expected to deliver its worst performance next year for a decade, Ms Whitman is under mounting pressure to show her strategy can deliver. "While we applaud the candid discussion on HP's issues, we believe investors will be continually left to question HP's ability to execute in a rapidly changing competitive landscape," according to analysts at Stifel Nicolaus. The Californian company, which has already announced plans to but 29,000 by the end of 2014 in a bid to save $3.5bn a year, warned that profits next year will fall shy of Wall Street's forecasts. "Demand continues to get worse while HP continues to increase its investments in R&D," said Amit Daryanani, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets. Things will get more challenging before they get better. Ms Whitman expects signs of recovery to emerge in 2014. Shares in HP slumped 13pc to $14.91, their lowest closing price since 2002.