Hewlett Packard chief executive Mark Hurd has admitted approving an investigation into boardroom leaks that included surveillance and email monitoring.
HP's board appointed Mr Hurd as chairman after asking Patricia Dunn to resign for her role in a company probe into board leaks to the media.
The company said Ms Dunn's departure would remove a distraction and allow the company to move forward. But analysts were unconvinced that it would end a controversy that has tarnished a venerable Silicon Valley company, drawing the attention of California's attorney general, the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the US Justice Committee and a Congressional panel.
"It's tough to say that [Mr Hurd] is definitely in the clear," said Shaw Wu, an analyst at American Technology Research. "I don't think we have all the answers. At minimum, this investigation is still a distraction for the company."
HP chief ethics officer Kevin Hunsaker and chief security officer Anthony Gentilucci also will leave their jobs, a person familiar with the matter said.
Mr Hurd, who has won investor support for leading a comeback at HP since taking over as chief executive in April 2005, told a news conference he approved the sending of e-mails from a fictitious source in an effort to root out the media leaks.
He apologised on behalf of the company and vowed to get to the bottom of the HP probe in which investigators used false identities to obtain the phone records of directors, employees and journalists.
"On behalf of HP I extend my sincere apologies to those journalists who were investigated and everyone who was impacted," said Mr Hurd.
"We believe that these were isolated instances of impropriety and not indicative of how we conduct business at HP."
Deborah Rhode, a law professor and director of the Centre on Ethics at Stanford University, said other top executives should lose their jobs in addition to Ms Dunn but that it was too early to say whether Mr Hurd would go as well.
Ms Dunn, who had been scheduled to step down as chairman in January, will now leave the board altogether and immediately. "She shouldn't be the only one to fall on her sword at this point," Ms Rhode said.
"There are a lot of questions whether Hurd can command the credibility and confidence the company badly needs at this point given the mismanagement of the investigation."
Mr Hurd told reporters HP still did not have all the facts about its inquiry into leaks dating back to 2005, but some of the findings are "disturbing."
He acknowledged there was a written report of the investigation that he did not read. "In the second phase, while many of the right processes were in place, they unfortunately broke down and no one in the management chain, including me, caught them," Mr Hurd said.
"I understand there is also a written report of the investigation [the second phase] addressed to me and others but I did not read it. I could have, and I should have."
Nevertheless, Mr Hurd defended the investigation, saying it was important to discover the source of the leaks and that he believed Ms Dunn had the company's best interests in mind.
Mike Holston, an outside attorney for HP, said the company's investigation ranged from the review of internal e-mails and instant messages, to the surveillance of an HP board member and at least one journalist.
He said investigators may have also sifted through individuals' trash. HP also said it appointed Bart Schwartz, a former US prosecutor, to conduct an independent review of the methods the company used in its leaks investigation. Schwartz will