HP CEO Resigns During Sexual Harassment Investigation 233
A number of readers are letting us know that HP CEO Mark Hurd just resigned over sexual harassment accusations. The company's board has appointed CFO Cathie Lesjak as interim CEO. A contractor had accused Hurd of sexual harassment, and the board brought in outside counsel to investigate. While the harassment claim could not be substantiated, the investigation did uncover other misconduct. Hurd's "close personal relationship" with the contractor created a conflict of interest, and he was also found to have misused company assets. In a statement, Hurd said, "As the investigation progressed, I realized there were instances in which I did not live up to the standards and principles of trust, respect and integrity that I have espoused at HP and which have guided me throughout my career."
Wasn't he the CEO during the pretexting scandal? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Wasn't he the CEO during the pretexting scandal (Score:5, Funny)
"As the investigation progressed, I realized there were instances in which I did not live up to the standards and principles..."
Thank goodness there was an investigation, so he could realize what he had done!
Re:Wasn't he the CEO during the pretexting scandal (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Wasn't he the CEO during the pretexting scandal (Score:5, Funny)
Well Done, Sarcastic Boy!
Now, off to the Alliteration Mobile!
Nanananannanana
Re: (Score:2)
Silly stupid bastard! Everyone knows you only bang your secretary, or if you're desperate, one of the girls in the office pool. Contractors are just so beneath an executive. It's like dicking the guy that refills the water coolers.
Re:Wasn't he the CEO during the pretexting scandal (Score:5, Interesting)
but sadly I'm guessing this is par for the course at this level of "leadership" in most companies.
Yeah but HP also had Carly who was forced to resign. Hopefully trouble doesn't come in 3's for HP.
**Sniff** I remember when HP was a well respected company and its equipment was built like a tank
Re: (Score:2)
Wasn't that before Carly?
Re: (Score:2)
I always thought the cases WERE from tanks. I could have sworn an old HPUX box I used had 8" armor-plating. It certainly felt like it when trying to move it around.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
No, that kind of casing is for products less than 100 cm^3 only. Anything bigger doesn't need protective casing since there's no possible rearrangement of particles that could make it any less useful.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Maybe the contractor was Carly!
Re:Wasn't he the CEO during the pretexting scandal (Score:5, Funny)
**Sniff** I remember when HP was a well respected company and its equipment was built like a tank
These days, the packaging is built like a tank's.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
**Sniff** I remember when HP was a well respected company and its equipment was built like a tank
That was when they were engineering products instead of marketing commodities.
Re:Wasn't he the CEO during the pretexting scandal (Score:5, Informative)
While it pains me to defend this piece of shit, the truth is that the pretexting was the handiwork of Patricia Dunn (chairwoman of HP board at the time), and the Hurd wasn't involved.
Re: (Score:2)
While it pains me to defend this piece of shit, the truth is that the pretexting was the handiwork of Patricia Dunn (chairwoman of HP board at the time), and the Hurd wasn't involved.
damn ..so trouble does come in 3's
Re:Wasn't he the CEO during the pretexting scandal (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Wasn't he the CEO during the pretexting scandal (Score:5, Funny)
I can't seem to remember ANY employee of a tech company that had anything good to say about the company they work for...
I just want to preemptively get this in:
Google is not a tech company - they're an ad agency.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
I started working for HP shortly after Carly came in, and I had the privilege to work with a number of 30+ year HP employees. They had worked for (and in several cases personally met) Bill and Dave and they had nothing but praise for them. They also had an amazing loyalty to the company - a loyalty that took one beating after another under Carly's leadership.
Maybe you're right that no employee of a tech company has anything good to say these days, but it wasn't the case at HP for many years.
As to the
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
They should have known that Hurd is unstable [gnu.org]
Re: (Score:2)
"I'm guessing this is par for the course at this level of "leadership" in most companies.
I disagree. I mean, I could be wrong, but most of the ceos I've met over the years, aside from the odd quirk, were very stand-up people, they had to be, otherwise no one would ever be able to do business, unless you buy that ALL ceos are sexual harasser. Clearly not so.. Also, Hurd Was Not CEO during the pretexting scandal, that was Patricia Dunn.
Re: (Score:2)
dunno, he seem to have gotten HP back on course after the spending spree of the previous CEO.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
you don't consider EDS, 3COM and palm a spending spree ???
holly jeebus in a pogo stick, man! the guy spent nearly 20 giga dolars on those. i bet carly is proud of him (except for the harrasment thingy, of course)
So THAT's why HP bought Palm (Score:4, Funny)
They wanted to be able to say, "No, your Honor, we didn't say we were pretexting, we said we were Pre texting."
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
The president gets blowjobs from an intern and he doesn't have to resign; the CEO did something similar and he has to resign.
The president didn't force or even coerce anyone to suck his dick. He only lied about it under oath, and it was a question being asked to try to establish something about allegedly nonconsensual sexual advances, meaning that it never should have been asked as it was irrelevant to the case, and asking the question was a political act.
Hope this helps.
Guidence System Failure! Eject! (Score:2, Insightful)
I realized ... I did not live up to the standards and principles of trust, respect and integrity that ... have guided me throughout my career."
Clearly the principles haven't been "guiding" him to within a tolerable deviance...
What info do we have on his... (Score:4, Interesting)
And what info do we have on that golden parachute he will be receiving from HP?
Re:What info do we have on his... (Score:5, Funny)
One made from 100 dollar bills and wet with the tears of laid off employees and their families. It's probably monogrammed with his initials too.
Re:What info do we have on his... (Score:5, Interesting)
$40 to $50 million by current estimates: http://www.businessinsider.com/hp-severance-2010-8 [businessinsider.com].
Part of me wonders if it was actually in his contract that even on being fired for ethical/criminal reasons [i.e. not just fired because "we don't think you're pumping the stock quite enough"] he gets a severance or if the board just wants this over with / is such pals with him / whatnot that they gave it to him anyway. If the former is true -- the hiring committees really need to make better contracts (and stop being packed with the friends of the folks they're hiring... but I suppose that's what happens when boards keep cross-pollinating as they do).
"realized"? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:"realized"? (Score:5, Funny)
He "realized there were instances" of misconduct on his part? More like he realized he'd been caught.
"Realized" means, his lawyers told him, "You're fucked."
Re:"realized"? (Score:5, Insightful)
That, and the rest of the board probably deciding that they had to get rid of him to avoid exposing any of them to investigations.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I think he's fairly honest here. Do you think these people even bother to read principles of conduct, except when they absent-mindedly recite them to their intended audience (other people)?
Re: (Score:2)
As a great man once said, "Was that wrong? Should I not have done that? I tell you, I gotta plead ignorence on this thing, because if anyone had said anything to me at all when I first started here that that sort of thing is frowned upon... you know, cause I've worked in a lot of offices, and I tell you, people do that all the time."
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Hehe... I love ignorance [youtube.com] as an excuse.
Re:"realized"? (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm going to play devil's advocate, keep in mind it may not work.
I find when I look at people who are given a lot of power don't tend to view "misuses" of power the same way as people do when looking at it from the outside. A lot of different kinds of corruption can be born from, "What's the harm?" and it can be very easy to run away from the consequences and by doing so, lie to themselves.
In cases like that, when you are forced and/or given an excuse to stop lying to yourself, you actually learn a lot about yourself and your behavior that you may not have known, but which you should have. It's actually rather easy to 'misfile' things in your head such that you actually do know them, but they're not properly weighted or not connected to other facts, for (a made up) example, "I hired my cousin in place of a qualified applicant, as a favor." Okay, you hired your cousin--did you check to see that he was doing a good job? Did the company suffer because you didn't look into his behavior? Did the company actually need that qualified applicant? Was the qualified applicant already working there (internal promotion) and have they gotten the shit end of the stick because of it? Was the qualified applicant, perchance, someone you actually knew and respected and who hasn't talked to you since?
Once you stop hiding from your own closet and its skeletons, you may in fact get hit by the realization that you aren't nearly as clean as you thought you were. That's all I'm saying.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
*caption: "[Golly]"
Crap floats. (Score:5, Insightful)
Anyone else's skin crawl as they read the rehearsed and empty words? Reeks of a sociopath saying what he thinks folks want to hear to let him off the hook. Funny how many seem to make it to the top.
Re:Crap floats. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Crap floats. (Score:5, Insightful)
Anyone else's skin crawl as they read the rehearsed and empty words? Reeks of a sociopath saying what he thinks folks want to hear to let him off the hook. Funny how many seem to make it to the top.
Only the sociopaths want the power so only the sociopaths get the power.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Crap floats. (Score:5, Insightful)
Criminal psychologst calls CEOs psychopaths [fastcompany.com]
Sociologist/Criminologist calls CEOs sociopaths [edubook.com]
Take your pick. Or maybe they're both. It would explain a lot.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
the definition of the two may well overlap: https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Psychopathy#Psychopathy_vs._sociopathy [wikimedia.org]
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Criminal psychologst calls CEOs psychopaths [fastcompany.com]
Sociologist/Criminologist calls CEOs sociopaths [edubook.com]
Take your pick. Or maybe they're both. It would explain a lot.
While I'd love to agree with their assessments, the simple fact is that psychology, sociology, and criminology are not sciences.
They're often useful practices, but whenever someone from one of these field tries to push some claim forward, all I see is their opinion, and a glaring lack of scientific method.
Re:Crap floats. (Score:5, Funny)
You only say these things because of your repressive mother.
Re:Crap floats. (Score:5, Insightful)
I'd refine that to "they're not hard sciences - yet". There's a dispute that's older than me (by a long way) as to whether soft/social sciences and social sciences are sciences at all and I won't get into that. What I will say is that there is absolutely nothing in any physical science which strictly prohibits any of the soft/social sciences becoming hard sciences eventually. That anyone knows with any certainty.
I will add this proviso: "The Emperor's New Mind" by Roger Penrose would seem to imply that psychology can never be a hard science, since it does claim that the brain is a quantum computer which is irreducible to a deterministic model. That's not quite enough, since QM is perfectly good physics and yet not reducible to a deterministic model, but the brain is hellishly complex and if we can't model even trivial macroscale systems using QM we certainly won't be able to model something as convoluted as the human brain. We might not need to model it to quite that degree to be able to derive laws that are as good in the social disciplines as Newtonian mechanics is in the physical sciences, which would probably be good enough to qualify as a hard science, but we'd not be able to go beyond that point if Penrose is right.
However, as things stand, you are absolutely correct. The soft sciences (whether or not they really are science) often do not use the scientific method and frequently are more opinion-based than anything. In short, not merely pre-modern-science but pre-Socratic. It shouldn't take more than 2,500 years for them to catch up, though. Less, if they put in the fundamental research necessary.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Sure there is. There is no real definition of "hard sciences" except by subject matter, so as long as "soft sciences" study what they
Re:Crap floats. (Score:5, Insightful)
It's not that they're the only people who want to be highly paid no matter how well or poorly they do, they're just the only ones who are able and willing to stab enough people in the back and stomp on enough puppies over the years to get there.
Most people would feel too much personal shame to lay off half the workforce "to save the company" and then collect more than their cumulative incomes as a bonus.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
What do you expect him to do? Stand up there and cry like a baby? Of course the words were rehearsed. The CEO is only answerable to the board and shareholders. He doesn't have to apologize to the managers or the employees. Considering how fickle investors are, he needs to say all the right things to make sure none of them panic.
Sounds to me like he had a consensual relationship with an underling that was prohibited by company rules. That's why it's not a sexual harassment violation, because no one fel
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
You rather glossed over the whole inaccurate expense reports, misappropriation of corporate resources and undisclosed close relationship with a contractor part of things that was uncovered while investigating the non-violation. Either that or your opinion of "didn't really do anything wrong" is substantively different than most other folks'. Perhaps you should get your resume over to the HP board soon?
He used company funds for his fling (Score:5, Insightful)
He can have a consensual relationship all he wants, (I never recall a CEO getting fired over an affair) but HP found him using company funds for this relationship. That crosses the line into misconduct worthy of firing. It's perfectly legal to have a mistress, and not something a CEO is going to get fired over. But he should have paid for the whole fling out of his own pocket; too many CEOs treat the company treasury as their piggy bank. As if their outsize salaries aren't big enough already...
And apologizing to the managers and employees would be appropriate here; nothing steams employees more than executives only paying lip service to a company's "values." The non-apology wasn't worth the paper it was written on. (It wasn't until he was investigated that it dawned on him it was wrong? *blech*)
It wasn't harassment because she probably agreed to the whole deal (likely up until the point he decided to dump her.)
Oh, and the "no panic" plan doesn't seem to be working. HP is down 10% in after-hours trading. (Which makes sense... an abrupt CEO transition from an executive that by all accounts was doing a good job is going to be tough.)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
But he should have paid for the whole fling out of his own pocket; too many CEOs treat the company treasury as their piggy bank.
True, but if you use company funds for your peccadilloes it's a lot harder for your wife to find out.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
If you have the restraint to do it carefully, and do it so that the company doesn't find out about it, that might be true in something other than the very short run.
OTOH, I suspect that people that use company funds to hide actual or attempted fooling around from their spouses are not generally people for whom that kind of restraint is normal.
I think that it is more the case that, when drunk on your own powe
Re:Crap floats. (Score:4, Insightful)
It sounds more like the words of an agreed-to statement made as part of a deal that involves the person making a statement and resigning while the other party to the agreement (in this case, the HP board) elects not to pursue some of the other remedies it might have available for the misconduct at issue, so that the offender merely loses the job (notionally voluntarily) and everyone moves on with a minimum expenditure of resources on further proceedings (litigation, etc.)
Re:Crap floats. (Score:5, Insightful)
I follow the news. I'm pretty immune at this point to rehearsed and empty words from sociopaths.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
http://slashdot.org/submission/1285008/Why-Modern-Business-Is-Bad-for-Your-Mental-Health [slashdot.org]
Should I resubmit this?
This is good news! (Score:5, Funny)
Now that the Hurd is abandonware, will HP contribute the source back tot he community?
I've been waiting for Gnu to deliver the Hurd for the last 20 years, and this might be enough to get them over the hump.
Messrs Hewlett and Packard (Score:4, Interesting)
...would like their good names back, now.
After what Carly Fiorina did to H-P, and the nation, and now this tool...hell, I remember when "hp" on the logo meant the very best in quality, not scandal and treason...
Re: (Score:2)
Unless they changed it to "BP" they didn't change it enough.
HP CEO title is cursed (Score:2)
It's not the title that's cursed (Score:3, Informative)
It's not the title that's cursed, its the reputation of a once-great company repeatedly getting abused and taken for granted by those chosen to lead it.
Here's to hoping the board has better judgment when choosing the next one. Their track record so far (Carly, and now this) isn't exactly inspiring.
SirWired
Re: (Score:2)
I don't remember Carly being bumped for misconduct - it was performance and just generally clashing with the board once too often, if I recall correctly [Hey, maybe I don't].
You may be thinking of Patricia Dunn who left the board due to the pretexting scandal when she was Chairwoman. That's when Hurd got both roles (even though the board and he made such a big deal about how that was such a danger when Carly was ousted... funny how that didn't seem to be a problem for them anymore...)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
download link? (Score:3, Funny)
Fortunately (Score:2)
Fortunately they don't produce anything important anymore like those Agilent scopes and *analyzers. So it is not like the foundation of electrical engineering would have received any cracks or so. If that would have happened to Agilent nobody would have bothered anyway.
After all, even to HP and its customers it probably won't mean much. Why do i see the same headlines on slashdot as I see on google news again?
I'd like to say "Unbeliveable", but I can't (Score:5, Interesting)
I find it hilarious/scary that whenever a CxO gets caught doing something stupid/criminal, the defense is always ignorance. These weasels who get paid more in a day than I get paid in a year suddenly become the most oblivious, ignorant, and stupid morons in the world when they are being investigated for wrongdoing.
It wasn't until the middle of the investigation that he realized he did something wrong? *retch*
Possible scenario:
He hires a mistress / "marketing" contractor.
Takes her on "fact-finding trips" in a company jet.
Dumps her / stops paying.
She sues for "harassment."
Board figures out the real story and lets him "resign"... in the meantime, they quietly pay off the mistress in return for her not filing suit. (Once you've gone public and filed suit with a high-profile case like this, you've just pissed away your best bargaining chips, which involve sweeping under the rug.)
If I was HP's board, I would not have let him resign; he would have been fired on the spot. Although I admit to being surprised that they didn't ham-handedly cover up the story; perhaps they learned their lesson with the wiretap fiasco from several years ago.
SirWired
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
If I was HP's board, I would not have let him resign; he would have been fired on the spot. Although I admit to being surprised that they didn't ham-handedly cover up the story; perhaps they learned their lesson with the wiretap fiasco from several years ago.
Most US banks never press charges against employee embezzlers. They are just quietly "let go."
Why? Would you do your business with a bank that had headlines in the news for embezzelers . . .?
HP isn't a bank (Score:2)
HP isn't a bank, and there is no mention he abused client funds or assets. The official reason for the firing was expense account fraud. I see folks prosecuted for embezzlement in the local news all the time.
And even at banks, they get fired and escorted out the door by security. They don't get to "resign" (and keep whatever pension and perks you might ordinarily keep as a former employee.) Betcha he gets to keep his stock options, pension, etc.
SirWired
Re: (Score:2)
Re:I'd like to say "Unbeliveable", but I can't (Score:5, Interesting)
If I was HP's board, I would not have let him resign; he would have been fired on the spot.
That's because you aren't his neighbor, don't sit on the boards of any other corps with him, don't drink and play golf with him on a regular basis and don't have your own contract mistresses too.
As a followup... one impressive thing (Score:4, Informative)
While Hurd himself has proven to be yet another spineless idiot with no moral compass, the General Counsel did not mince words:
(From CNET)
-----
Holston said the company's investigation revealed that the contractor had received compensation and incorrect expense reimbursement from Hurd as part of his attempt to conceal his relationship with her.
HP's board was notified of the matter after receiving a letter from the outside contracting firm on June 29. HP conducted an investigation with outside investigators and concluded that Hurd's conduct "exhibited a profound lack of judgment," according to Holston.
The amount of expenses involved is not material to HP, according to Holston. "The facts that drove the decision for the company had to do with integrity, with credibility, and honesty," he told investors on a call Friday.
----
For a corporate press release, this is practically ten-magaton nuclear anger. The only time I've seen something close is bankrupt corrupt company trying to throw the old CEO under the bus while trying to worm out of a shareholder lawsuit.
Re:As a followup... one impressive thing (Score:5, Insightful)
I love how "lack of judgment" has become the newest euphemism for "crook". Misappropriating funds, preferential treatment for a contractor (which really is a form of theft too), and instead of being labeled a conniving embezzler, he gets the wooly "profound lack of judgment" crapola.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
The guy was... (Score:2)
...Hurd (pun intended, sorry).
Re: (Score:2)
...GNU/Hurd
FTFY.
SBC (Score:5, Informative)
Posting this anonymously since I work for HP.
Seems Mark violated the Standarts of Business Conduct (SBC). Every new employee has to study the SBC and every year these is a mandatory training on understanding this document. It kind of discredits both the SBC and the trainings if the CEO breaks his own rules.
Oh, and I hope they will find a new CEO who actually understands how technology works. Mark was not much better than Carly - HP now hardly does any serious R&D (except for HP Labs which actually does pretty cool stuff), preferring to buy established companies.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
SBC training is about limiting the companies liability when there is a lawsuit. The purpose is not to "train" or "educate" employees. The purpose is to be able to say "we made it clear that this is not how you should act so this is the employee's fault - don't sue us".
Re:SBC (Score:4, Interesting)
Even in this case I'd post non-anonymously when I can. This kind of comment in particular sounds like it would be no problem to do so.
Clearly you've never dealt with upper management at a large company. I was once reprimanded at a former job (cough*AOL*cough) by upper management for praising, on an internal mailing list, the technology the company was using in its infrastructure, but which had fallen into disfavor by many in management.
When dealing with upper management, my policy has become, "Expressing any opinion is like poking a rabid wolverine with a sharp stick."
It doesn't stop me from doing it. I'm just not surprised when there is retaliation all out of proportion. Almost always, these are not people who want to hear from anyone not parroting exactly what they say.
"contractors" like this, so no women taken srsly (Score:3, Insightful)
It only takes ONE "contractor" like this in a company to totally discredit any other incoming women, no matter how many times over they can prove that their technical qualifications and achievements were earned fair and square. People won't even bother to find out. They'll just *assume* she got her grades, degrees, honors and awards on her back, got men to do her homework for her, "managed" to take credit for other peoples' work in all other previous work experience, and just happens to "know what the words mean." Except that the a-hole men on the project will simply not listen, assume she's "got it all wrong" and then have to find out the hard way what her point was -- when the little boys walk right into typical traps for young players that she'd warned them about .... having more experience.
"contractors" like this piss me off even more than ethically-impaired sociopaths like Hurd. And for a *prostitute* like that to scream "sexual harassment" when he gets tired of her just makes a mockery of *real* cases of sexual harassment, which sorry -- goes on ALL the time.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Motto (Score:3, Informative)
Mark Hurd's bio disappeared from HP's site:
http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/execteam/bios/hurd.html [hp.com]
His motto was:
"Everything we do must be for the customer. If it's not, then we need to reconsider why we're doing it."
http://web.archive.org/web/20071226095057/http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/execteam/bios/hurd.html [archive.org]
He should have tried to respect it...
The difference between Hurd and Fiorina (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:The difference between Hurd and Fiorina (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm guessing that the difference here isn't the accusations, its the fact that in Hurd's case, investigation based on the allegations turned up all kinds of misconduct against the company.
Sexual harassment allegations (especially when made by someone else where the alleged victim isn't backing them up, whether or not they have been paid off) can be difficult to substantiate even if true, and people in power can draw lots of false allegations -- OTOH, things like misappropriating company resources for personal use are often leave evidence that is far more cut and dried.
Wig / Comb Over (Score:4, Funny)
Gosh, his corporate picture is terrifying! He's combing hair over from his right ear (as we look at it), adding various bits of hair, to pretend he isn't balding!
WIG! WIG!
two crimes here (Score:3, Interesting)
The first is obviously Mark committing theft, probably grand theft. The second is the board failing in their fudiciary as usual. If the board did what they are charged with doing, Mark would have been told, either resign and get nothing or we take you to court on grand theft charges. Yes you can sue us for your contract spoils, but do enjoy what money can buy in the slammer. I'm pretty sure grand theft is over a year, and in cali that means wonderful places like san quentin are an option. But of course the board rolled over as usual and the shareholders get screwed for 28M. It is just sick what happens in the boardroom. H&P would be puking right now.
Hell Hath No Fury? (Score:3, Interesting)
Speculation: for there to be a sexual harassment case, there must have been a complaint, which tells me that the lady in question was not happy with Mr. Hurd. She would also be aware of the misuse of expenses, something to be used against him if needed ... so a sexual harassment complaint might be swept under the carpet, but misuse of expenses would be taken a bit more seriously. Lawyers can more easily sink their teeth that kind of complaint. In my estimation, that is.
I can't talk about current HP culture, since I left there about three years ago to go to university. I was wondering whether I had made the right choice, whether I'd have been better off staying. Financially, sure, but in terms of general quality of life ... nah.
Some are more equal than others (Score:5, Interesting)
Had this been a "rank and file" employee, the said employee would've been escorted out of the building on the same day, no severance. Instead we get this loop that's just going to go lay low for a few months then move on and pull the same shit again, till caught... (rinse and repeat.)
Re:Resigned? Yeah right! He got his ass fired! (Score:5, Informative)
I wonder what kind of golden parachute the board paid to make him go away quietly?
According to CNN [cnn.com], he could make $53 million in severance pay.
Re:Resigned? Yeah right! He got his ass fired! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
it's slashdot, you aren't in the computer industry?
I think the GPP was talking about the CEO industry, which is quite separate from the industry of any company the CEO happens to be running at the moment. It's really bizarre how successful the business model is: tell people what to do, even when what you tell them to do is quite clearly contrary to their own interests and the interests of the company, and they give you gobs of money for it; then when they finally get sick of doing all the stupid and counterproductive things you've been telling them to do,
Re:Resigned? Yeah right! He got his ass fired! (Score:5, Insightful)
In Las Vegas (Score:5, Insightful)
In Las Vegas, that type of contractor is called an "escort."
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
People have been saying that for a long time. Of course, they've also been saying "Steve Ballmer, get your hands out of the crack of your ass... and stop smelling them!"
Re: (Score:2)
First Bob Moffat, now Mark Hurd.... both got caught in strange sexual histories.... Larry Ellison, better keep your hands where we can see it.
When Larry E plays the field, he plays all the way - he's been married four times.
Re: (Score:2)
It' simple. Don't think with the small head.
Otherwise I want to see pictures so I can see whether or not it was worth it.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)