Mark Hurd is HP's CEO

Mark Hurd will take over as the CEO of Hewlett Packard, according to a report in Red Herring.

The appointment comes nearly two months after its former CEO, Carly Fiorina  was ousted in February after her controversial acquisition of Compaq Computer in 2002 failed to produce the desired results.

Mark Hurd will get a $2 million signing bonus and a $1.4 million salary for taking up the post at a time when HP's faces a tough challenge from its competitors.

Hurd will be given an additional 400,000 stock options and 450,000 shares of restricted stock for leaving NCR. The restricted shares alone have a value of more than $8 million.

Hurd is known for turning around an ailing NCR, known for it ATM machines into a successful venture. His tenure as CEO in NCR had seen a four-fold jump in profits at NCR last year, resulting in NCR's shares rising more than 300 percent after his appointment in 2003.

Hurd was promoted as chief executive of NCR in March 2003. He has served as NCR's president and chief operating officer and was responsible for NCR's Teradata data warehousing business.

HP faces stiff competition from IBM in high-end Unix computer servers and in computer services. HP has also lost its market share to PC maker Dell, the world's largest personal computer maker. With over 25 years of experience, 48-year old Hurd is expected to improve HP's position.

HP's stock price had declined by more than 50 percent during Fiorina's five-year stint with HP. On hearing the news of the new appointment, HP shares jumped 10 percent. NCR shares fell 17 percent.