Mumbai: CEO Mark Hurd has taken over as the new chairman of Hewlett-Packard, immediately after the sacking of Patricia Dunn, the previous board chairperson, thereby ending chaos and confusion at Silicon Valley''s largest company and the world''s second-largest personal- computer maker.

Talking to reporters at HP''s Palo Alto headquarters, Hurd said he is in charge and is serious about repairing the damage from the company''s spy scandal.

Hurd admitted that HP messed up in tolerating investigators who used deceit to obtain phone records and tendered an apology to the journalists. "On behalf of HP, I extend my sincere apologies to those journalists who were investigated and everyone who was impacted,'''' he said.

The report was "addressed to me and others, but I did not read it," Hurd said. "I could have, and I should have," he said.

After the ouster of Dunn, HP, is now negotiating the departure of its top lawyer and an investigator, Kevin Hunsaker, who probed into media leaks.

Dunn initiated the board investigation and, therefore, was the person most accountable for recognising that investigators had exceeded ethical if not legal boundaries, HP''s board said. ``To move forward, we believe it is in the company''s best interest that she (Dunn) now step aside given the distraction her presence on our board continues to create,'''' the board said.

Dunn, 53, hired outside contractors to spy on directors, employees and reporters. The spying included using false identities to gain phone records. Investigators also searched one person''s trash and planted ``tracers'''' on a reporter''s e-mail to see who they were in contact with and followed reporters.

Hurd said the company had hired a former federal prosecutor, Bart M. Schwartz, to look into HP''s current procedures for investigations and to make recommendations for additional controls.

``This will ensure we have the appropriate level of rigor and discipline, so we can be assured that this type of situation can never occur again,'''' Hurd said.