Spymaster Patty Dunn, #17 on Forbes List of Powerful Women
Newsweek is reporting that HP has called an emergency board meeting.
Read the reports on this fiasco where Chairwoman Patricia “Patty” Dunn is at the center of a faux “spy” case. Reporters phone records were illegally obtained resulting in all sorts of legal and SEC violations and the sudden resignation of Tom Perkins as well as other issues. There is no way — after a corporate witch hunt that results in spying that targets a New York Times reporter, Fortune Magazine reporter, CNET reporters and others — that this woman stays in office.
Whether she was set up to fail is another issue. Her relationship to Carly Fiorina, who was not a favorite of the valley boys, seems problematic. This invites an essay in itself (later).
But for now I can assure you that there is no way they can keep her in this job. This was no minor misstep and could possibly create all sorts of long term problems for her and the company if she sticks around beyond Sunday. An 8K was already filed improperly after the Perkins resignation since no honest explanation was given as is required by the SEC. This is grounds for immediate dismissal in itself.
SO why the brown-nosing and soft-peddling by various analysts regarding this situation? Read this Marketwatch article quoting various sources.
What planet are these people from:
Crawford DelPrette, senior vice president of research at IDC, said that unless it comes out that Dunn had firsthand knowledge, or gave approval of any illegal activities before or as they were happening, it’s highly unlikely the H-P board will seek her removal. “I think the board will support Patty because she has clearly emerged as a strong board chairman,” DelPrette said. “History will probably look at what she did [to stop the leaks] as important for the board’s authority.”
Are you kidding me? I guess if “support her” means, “Hey, you must resign, although we will say we supported you.”
And this:
Momin Khan, an analyst with Technology Business Research, said that Hurd’s efforts since becoming chief in March 2005 have gone a long way toward restoring investor confidence and the H-P corporate culture. Khan added that in its own way, Dunn’s methods of clamping down on corporate leaks actually fits in with the company’s turnaround.
Fits in? Spying on John Markoff of the New York Times fits in? Perhaps these experts should familiarize themselves with civil rights violations as well as SEC rules.
“What’s really weird,” Markoff told me, “Is that Patty Dunn gave the eulogy at my uncle’s funeral.”
Maybe he can give one at hers. She’s toast.
related link:
Timeline of events
SOP corp..
Anything they can do, they will try, until CAUGHT.
Maybe she and Carly can spend some quality time together now… buy some horses and diamonds and yachts and stuff.
Carly turned my favorite company into (one of) my least favorite.
HP is nothing but an ink company now.
They do the ink game well.
(2 and 3). So they are following Walter’s advice after all. Poetic justice, I figured out he was the smartest one on the board.
#4, he was, that is why he is gone. He was competition to Carly and Patty.
“Topics included beefing up HP’s software group, increasing its support of Advanced Micro Devices’ Opteron server processor and improving its direct sales operation.”
She risked jail because of the release of that? Cripes, only the biggest control freak could get that irate over something so insignifigant.
There a script for “Men in Plaid II-The Silicon Falcon” under this Hewlett-Paranoid story.
“My name is Mouse Hammer. I investigate executive nerds. I met the head HP babe at Dragon Con near the Buffy the Vampire Slayer booth. She picked the spot and told me to wear a Darth Vader helmet to avoid suspicion. It looked funny with my micro-fiber double-breasted pin-striped suit. She must have thought I was a big dumb lug, cause what she asked me to do sounded like trouble, the kind of trouble you only find around babes on the Fortune Executive Hotties list, babes with big racks….of servers. But she had a great ASCII… file that could make a guy buy a laptop with a Sony battery and like it…”
Before we all call Carly Fiorina a failure lets remember she walked away from HP with more than all of us together will make in a lifetime, John excluded since he’s already richer than Jesus. She’s drawing several impressive board of directors salaries and had a multimillion dollar book deal. At least she did nothing illegal. The Compaq deal was a big risk, and it failed. The old HP really did need some retooling, it was too fat and stuck in the 80’s.
She’s kinda hot.
Carly was hot too. (and she made a nice rack joke at Oracle World one year) I am sure Patty Dunn already knows what the emergency board meeting is about. All she has to do is rewind the tape recordings from the wire taps and play the tapes!
you say ‘whereby’ too much.
What is amazing is there is any quesiton about the legality of ‘Pretexting” or as I like to call it fraud. There would be no question John would be having a large cow if he found police officers obtaining these records in the same fashion with no court order. I think Perkins did the ethical thing resigning over this issue. I’m not all that impressed with this Director that opened his big trap starting down this road.
Who says “whereby?” I said it twice..and rarely use it. I’ll be more careful.
The PR spin that comes next should really be something to watch. Most of these huge corporations are engaged in this sort of thing. You have rootkits, tracking technology, search engine data, who knows what and all sorts of other nonsense destroying privacy and security. HP just got caught in their own web. Watch for a big we’re sorry, followed by a thanks and capped by a series of press releases about restructuring by new leadership. HP will survive. It’s so big it can do what it wants and screw everybody.
It is important to remember that HP was in rapid decline financiallly before Carly took over. In the mid-90’s there was talk that HP would become a printer only company and disappear eventualy. Then she took over and not only revitalized the company but turned it into a world-wide leader.
I do not agree with all the steps taken to make this happen but her business accument should be considered top notch.
HP is a world-wide leader and that’s what counts as Hawkeye666 noted here. If you throw enough muscle and money at a problem, you can do about anything. They have a lot of pissed off journalists out there and that’s a problem, although this can be managed. There’s a good chance Dvorak is right, Dunn could be done. It’s a classic meet the new boss, same as the old boss situation. To run a world-wide corporation you must be ruthless and take a whatever it takes approach. HP is in damage control mode right now. People are going to be taking shots at HP and more damage will be done before it’s all over. The people who know how to wreck companies aren’t the executives, they are the journalists and insiders who delight in this sort of story, because it pays the bills. When the executives start using the same methods (spying) as the journalists use, they are in trouble. It’s far easier to ignore the leaks and journalists than to operate on their level. I don’t know what HP should do, that’s their business. I’m sure we’ll see a stream of articles and columns about it as HP responds. I’m sure Dunn, if forced out, will receive millions of dollars to leave. The top executives always get a nice departing gift regardless of if they wreck an airline, a college or a factory. Dunn didn’t wreck HP, it’s doing better thanks to her good works (that’s PR speak) for we must focus on the positive going forward (more PR speak) and she made some mistakes (more PR speak), but don’t we all. You can bet she won’t be working for wages at Walmart after leaving HP, if that’s the outcome. She’ll be set for the good life. She’s a jetsetter, club kind of person and will have more time for golf and shopping. They take care of their own, these world-wide leadership types you know.
There is no question that this chick has absolutely no morals and needs to go. What should concern the stockholders is that not only is she unethical, she is an unethical idiot. Look, if you are going to conduct a dodgy “at all costs” investigation don’t be stupid when you reveal the results by telling everyone about the questionable techniques you used to get the information. She should have just stated that her sources have revealed that the leak came from Keyworth and leave it at that. It helps that Keyworth stated that he would have fessed up if asked.
I’d like to see a boycott of HP product reviews by all of the publications like PC Mag, CNet, Fortune, WSJ and others in response to their reporters being pretexted. As a tech columnist for a southern CA paper, that’s something I am doing.
Er, Paul, not that I ever get involved in such action but I do know that you never publicly announce a blackball! Cripes!
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Incredible points. Great arguments. Keep up the good spirit.