Blogcritics: Comments on Fiorina Out: HP

Comment by Aaman

Wed, 9 Feb 2005 22:02:43 EST

(Shiny)Happy People - HP still makes great products - hang in there, dawg!

Comment by Mikey

Wed, 9 Feb 2005 21:34:15 EST

For the last five years, many HP employees have lived by the motto "can you stand it longer than Carly is going to be around?". For those who left or were let go, Carly's ouster is bittersweet. For those who stayed, it's PARTY time tonight, then back to work tomorrow. It won't be easy to make HP what it once was, but Happy People will give it 120%.

Comment by Aaman

Wed, 9 Feb 2005 15:00:39 EST

Thank you - the business talking heads are breaking out in rashes to comment on every website/channel. Great joke from the usual Slashdot discussion:

HP CEO Carly Fiorina dies, and she goes through the usual process of defending her case in front of the Divine Jury. It is not clear what happens exactly and where things go wrong, but when the jury comes back and the sentence is read, it turns out she is admitted into Heaven. So Carly is filling in the usual paperwork at the HAO's desk (Heaven Admission Officer): non-disclosure agreement, legal disclaimers, non-competition clause, etc... 'Congratulations and welcome to Heaven,' finally says the angel. 'Go down the corridor, first door on your right.' Carly walks to the door, pushes it open... and staggers back. Through the flames and behind the door, all you can see are countless devils inflicting the most horrible tortures to screaming souls. She rushes back to the Officer and waves her admission pass, breathless. 'Must be an error, this thing here says Heaven!' 'Oh yeah,' says the angel, barely looking up from his/her screen. 'Forgot to tell you... we merged.'

Comment by Eric Olsen

Wed, 9 Feb 2005 14:55:36 EST

excellent, thorough, clear job on this Aaman, thanks - I had heard the news but didn't really know what was going on. I have a much better sense now.

Comment by Aaman

Wed, 9 Feb 2005 13:58:58 EST

Carly Fiorina is receiving a severance package worth $21.1 million as part of her departure as chairman and chief executive of Hewlett-Packard, a company spokesman said Wednesday. Under a severance plan passed by committees of HP's board in 2003, if the company's CEO is "involuntarily terminated without cause," she receives 2.5 times her annual salary and bonus. For Fiorina, based on her 2003 compensation, the most recent the company has made public, that amount would come to about $8.4 million. The source of the remainder of the $21.1 million wasn't immediately clear, although it may include benefits related to stock options. \ Forbes has interesting commentary, including,

Two possibilities loom: Chop it up into pieces; or sell to Dell. Carly became the brass hat we love to hate, now that Jack Welch, Dick Grasso, Dennis Kozlowski and Bernie Ebbers have left the corporate suite.\ Carly lived by the headline, and now she dies on deadline, ousted from the company she was trying to rescue

Comment by Aaman

Wed, 9 Feb 2005 12:54:33 EST

In my experience, the overheads are actually at the managerial level, not the development costs - unfortunately though, the managers somehow preserve their own jobs mighty fine. The global delivery model has brought benefits, and the British did much the same in the Industrial revolution, when the mills of Lancanshire took away jobs from all over the world. Anyway, Carly's out - new boss same as the old boss, I'm sure.

Comment by Mark Saleski

Wed, 9 Feb 2005 12:49:05 EST

i was just commenting on hp in general, not the ceo situation. it just bugs me to see all the nicey, nice tv adds making it seem like they're here to make our lives better, all the while they're firing engineers and shipping the owrk offshore. yea, i know...it's the churn, it'll make 'em more 'efficient'. i've heard it before.

Comment by Aaman

Wed, 9 Feb 2005 12:45:17 EST

Mark, I don't quite see the connection to offshoring here - HP's challenges arise from the merger with Compaq more than anything else. But perhaps this is actually another job that can be done better by a 'counterpart from India' - many excellent CEOs available at a lower cost, I'm sure

Comment by Mark Saleski

Wed, 9 Feb 2005 12:23:21 EST

who knows if they've lost their way? they've spent a lot of time over the past several years replacing local software developers with counterparts from india. just cutting costs i guess. whatever.