Mark Hurd

More details emerged over the weekend about the circumstances surrounding the fall of HP CEO Mark Hurd -- including the identity of the HP contractor, real estate agent and actress at the center of the controversy, Jodie Fisher. According to the New York Times and others, an internal investigation essentially cleared Hurd of sexual harassment charges but found that he had falsified expense reports covering payments to Fisher.

Valleywag has clips of Fisher's "films" if you're interested in catching up on her, um, acting career.

But the more interesting issue from a business standpoint is the question of who will replace Hurd as HP CEO.

This is a reach, but one interesting possibility to think about is Robbie Bach, the outgoing Entertainment & Devices Division president at Microsoft. Bach has said he truly plans to retire, but given his history across business computing and mobile devices -- and his impending availability -- he would seem less of a long shot than the Microsoft execs floated by the Seattle Times last week: Kevin Turner, the company's chief operating officer, and Bob Muglia, the Microsoft Server & Tools president.

All of those are strictly in the realm of speculation. Even mentioning Bach's name in this context is ironic, given some of the unconfirmed speculation about the real reason for his Microsoft departure.

Although HP says it will look both externally and internally for Hurd's successor, Reuters notes that some of the company's internal candidates are particularly strong, listing five notable execs working for the company.

Of those internal candidates the VAR Guy blogger puts his money on Ann Livermore, the executive vice president in charge of HP's enterprise business.

The company hasn't issued a timeline for the CEO search, but if the past is any indication, it could be fast. As quoted this morning by Channel Insider, one analyst points out in a report that Hurd started less than two months after the ouster of Carly Fiorina as the previous HP CEO.

Hurd is widely credited with turning HP around financially, but many employees want more of a visionary, not just a cost-cutter, based on commentaries submitted to the Glassdoor.com review site.

HP's shares were down more than 7 percent in trading as of 8 a.m. Pacific today, following the announcement Friday afternoon of Hurd's resignation.