Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) Chairman Raymond Lane is giving up his powerful post--a surprise move that heralds yet another shakeup of the technology company's long-beleaguered board.

Ralph Whitworth, a veteran shareholder activist, will run the board temporarily until H-P recruits a permanent chairman. Mr. Lane will remain on the board but two other H-P directors--John Hammergren and G. Kennedy Thompson--will resign.

Directors approved the changes during a conference call Thursday and are expected to announce them later this afternoon.

The turnover follows deep dissatisfaction among shareholders over the company's botched acquisition of U.K. software firm Autonomy Corp., which H-P bought for $11 billion in 2011 then wrote down by $8.8 billion roughly a year later. H-P said it was misled about Autonomy's finances, an allegation denied by the software firm's former chief executive.

The deal happened on Mr. Lane's watch. In a sign of shareholders' unease, the chairman and Messrs. Hammergren and Thompson nearly lost their seats at H-P's annual meeting two weeks ago.

Mr. Lane chose to step down in light of the vote, because he "believes he doesn't have a mandate from the shareholders," Mr. Whitworth said in an interview Thursday. "He believes there has been a lot of distraction in the past few months. He wants the company to be able to move forward without that distraction."

The changes are only the latest for a board that has endured regular turnover and criticism for much of the past decade. Directors came under scrutiny over a spying scandal in 2006 that prompted Chairman Patricia Dunn to resign. Further rounds of harsh criticism followed the board's 2010 ouster of CEO Mark Hurd, which confused investors, and hiring of Leo Apotheker, Mr. Hurd's short-lived replacement who led the Autonomy deal.

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

04-04-13 1645ET