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Subscribe to RSSWidespread reports that Hewlett-Packard intends to dismiss its chief executive after less than a year and bring in former eBay CEO Meg Whitman have caused hand-wringing across Silicon Valley and raised questions about whether the technology giant's board is "the worst ever."
Even the Reuters news agency, generally not known for being snarky, ran a story asking whether H-P is competing for the title.
"I was trying to think of another company that had tripped up that often in this many years and I found it impossible to come up with another example," Paul Hodgson, senior research associate at GovernanceMetrics International, told Reuters.
If the company announces the CEO transition as expected later today, it would be the latest in a litany of gaffes and questionable moves at the Silicon Valley stalwart, considered the largest technology company by sales ($126 billion last year) with some 325,000 employees.
HP just recently confused investors and consumers with a U-turn in strategy, killing a short-lived TouchPad product and announcing plans to possibly spin off its personal computer business. HP also has been questioned over its acquisition of British software maker Autonomy Corp., not to mention lingering concerns about a phone-tapping scandal and the dismissal of previous CEO Mark Hurd, who was caught up in a scandal over his relationship with a female contractor. A previous CEO, Carly Fiorina, lost her job after engineering a massive merger with rival PC maker Compaq Computer.
Another question being raised is whether H-P's board might have hired current CEO Leo Apotheker last year without ever meeting him. The New York Times’ James Stewart reported that most of Hewlett-Packard’s 12-member board had never met Apotheker when they selected him for the job last September. Stewart cited interviews with several board members who were not identified.
“It has got to be the worst board in the history of business," former HP director Tom Perkins, of Kleiner Perkins fame, told the Times.
But while some say HP's board may be the worst ever, others say the honor should belong to Yahoo, whose board chairman recently dismissed CEO Carol Bartz by telephone, leading her to call the directors a bunch of “doofuses” in a profanity-laced rant to Fortune.
CNBC's Jim Cramer said he favored Yahoo's board for the title of worst ever, but acknowledged that the race was probably "neck and neck."
No matter who deserves the title, we know what you're thinking: It's an honor just being nominated.
Check out Cramer's view below:
CNBC's Jim Cramer weighs in on what traders are watching ahead of the opening bell.
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Stop. Writing. Sentences. Like. This. Thanks!
HP and Yahoo are both good considerations for this bad management award. However, I would like to nominate the American people to this negatively exalted post, who acting as the board of Directors for America - unwittingly hired Congress. Enough said. Noting can top this level of stupidity and this level of incompetence, other than the hiring of Obama as chairman. But then one must consider that Obama was hired by the same idiots that also hired Congress.
Compared to Congress and the presidency, Yahoo and HP are just minor league failures.
Yes..being nominated for the worts is indeed and honor. I would say if ordinaryemployees wore hired witout an interview some might questionthe compnayboard competence.How conme no one question the Boards own competence for failure ti interview?
Whare are the shareholders? Don't they care at all?
Arlin, please learn how to spell. When a little red wiggly line appears underneath the word you just typed, that means you have misspelled it. You can actually right click on your word and it will give you suggestions as to which word you were trying to spell. If, after viewing their suggestive words, you still don't know which one to pick, then you may just continue on as always...
That's "suggested" words, not "suggestive". Suggestive would usually mean words that suggest something naughty.
Hah. Ironic. Yahoo fires a crazy beotch, and HP hires one. I think somebody on the HP board is trying to tank it, so that they can bet on the downslide.
So here's the drill.. they probably have to pay the old CEO "zillions" to buy him out... and they will, obviously, rant and rave about the "GREAT" Meg and give her some great signing bonus... and then in another year have to pay her some "zillions" to get out of that contract... tell me, where can someone get this kind of job that just keeps making money by being bad... I've not bought an HP Product in years.. and they way they change ink cartridges and laser cartridges every time they get a new printer is crazy....
No it's not. It's Detroit "planned obsolescence".
BTW: an HP PC was the single worst computer I have ever had. Suffered with it at work for 5 years. About once a year it would have a massive hardware failure. With that shrew in charge, HP is doomed.
Worst board ever? How about AMR's board? AMR has lost what,7 Billion dollars of Wall Streets money and they haven't replaced the whole executive suite? It's time for a change ate AMR including the entire Board Of Directors.
For outright thievery, the worst board must have been Enron. And there must be some recognition for every insurance company that switched from mutual to publicly-owned (stock). How about all the once-solid electric utilities that sold out the employees and stockholders for the worthless-house-of-cards business model (during sellouts that netted the boards and executives huge windfalls)?
The 'award' mentioned in this article is evidently for currently operating boards.
It's close, but I have to give it to HP ... spinning off the original core business that held the true culture of the company has never sat well with it's customers. And the whole Fiorina era followed by the spying debacle was pretty bad.
Well, Yahoo was responsible for "The Worst Investment Ever Made":
http://www.halfbakedlunatic.com/post/2011/03/15/The-Worst-Investment-Ever-Made.aspx
So I think they'd get my vote :-)
HP sucks. Poor quality. Poor customer service. That's all it took to bring this company down. There's one thing the Chinese will never beat us at. Pride in quality craftsmanship.
Does HP have a policy of only hiring professional losers? Both Whitman and Fiorina ran for political office last year in California (governor and senate respectively), and both got STOMPED. Whitman only held tightly scripted public speaking events because every time she opened her mouth she was exposed as a complete idiot. I guess draining the last bit of blood out of a company via the golden parachute route is the conciliation prize these days. There has to be a huge short selling scheme attached to this move - it's the only thing that makes any sense.
As a long time employee of AT&T Bell Labs/Lucent Technology I nominate the Lucent Board of Directors for that honor. Considering that Lucent had a $250 Billion market value in 1999 with one of the greatest R&D staff on the entire planet, to where they are today (merged with Alcatel with a stock price of around $3.00). Despite the faux pas of Yahoo and HP BOD, they pale to the job the Lucent BOD did on oversight of then CEO Rich McGinn. How about a $4.5 billion dollar purchase of a startup (Chromatis) that had no revenue and 132 employees. A year later it was shut down and never generated a cent of revenue. Where was the BOD on these worthless acquisitions that Lucent did from 1998-2000?
Well as much as Obama's administration is essentially a 'board' the worst ever is not HP nor Yahoo but the White House.
I'd nominate the board of Eastman Kodak. For six years, the company has lost millions of dollars and placated shareholders with "we'll do better next year". Even with this debacle, the board has allowed CEO Antonio Peres to continue to hold that position.
Radio Shack's Board of Directors needs to be right up there, too. The absolute STUPIDITY of putting a hedge fund manager in charge of a retail business is bad in and of itself. But the idiot then brings in further idiots who FIRE the very people who DO know the business and what's going on. I know each new administration cleans house, but you do NOT get rid of the very people who DO know the business and who ARE proven sales leaders. Futhermore, Julian Day's plan to sell RS proved to be a BIG BIG bust, just as he did. He and Brian Bevin demoralized and tore apart the company, leaving it in worse shape, price wise and employee wise, than when they came. They totally abandoned the very core of their business. They cared more about #s than they did the customer and their own employees. Common sense TOTALLY went out the door with this duo and the problem is the BOD let them do it.
STUPID!