Aug

10

Mark HurdI note with interest that the CEO and Chairman of HP suddenly resigned last evening amidst sexual harassment allegations.

The market promptly knocked $10.6 Billion off the market cap of HP stock in after-hours trading. My very progressive daughter instructed me to buy some HP stock for her account, and I happily obliged.

Mr. Hurd was a fine CEO but he is not worth $10.6 Billion in market cap–if anything, the Board's reaction is a testament to the strength and integrity of this enterprise. It's also ironic that his predecessor is Carly Fiorina– who's running for the Senate in California, and who didn't get credit for the successful HP/Compaq merger.

Alex Forshaw comments:

I couldn't disagree more, Anonymous.

Hurd took "non recurring charges" every quarter from prior acquisitions, such as the big s***pile EDS.

He rewrote the HPQ narrative so well that it was almost too good to be true. Its market cap is up 50 percent since he turned the ship around. He has been a gold mine for M&A bankers and HPQ has been assiduously massaged by the sell side as a result.

I have no idea what his "worth" is but a lot of people at HPQ owe him a lot.

It's very counter-intuitive that a five- or six-figure "improper payment" could outweigh the political clout Hurd has amassed within the organization unless some of Hurd's other decisions are going horribly wrong beneath the surface.
 


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