Hurd's own compensation took a much sharper dive. His total 2009 compensation package totaled $24.2 million, a 29% decline compared to $34 million in 2008. () 

To improve HP’s operating efficiency, he has made staff cuts and ordered a companywide pay cuts. Hurd has also shown a willingness to play the big spender. There has been no shortage of during his time as CEO.

In April, HP announced in a deal valued at $1.2 billion. Less than six months earlier, HP laid down $2.7 billion to acquire 3Com, adding the company’s Ethernet network switches, routers and security products to its ProCurve business.

In August 2008, HP closed its acquisition of technology services giant EDS. The helped HP leapfrog over its services provider competitors to land behind IBM as the second largest global outsourcing company worldwide.

In 2007, , gaining automation technology that could be applied to configuring and provisioning physical and virtual data center components. A year earlier, HP acquired Mercury Interactive for $4.9 billion, seeding a new division for business technology optimization.