HP Lays Off Hundreds of Former Palm Employees Discussion

[hal]

Why does this behavior remind me of the good old "Greed Is Good" 80s, when corporate raiders would swoop in, raid pension funds and then move on to the next victim - er, um, opportunity? Raider, CEO with golden parachute, tomayto, tomahto ...

Employees are inconsequential, worth less than zero.

I am disgusted.

Raiders... now that term fits in here so snug that you can't think all these events could obey a good nature. Raiders, racketeers, mobsters, all of them loot on funds they didn't raise. In much of the digital tech world, I am kinda disappointed with current events, like corporations raising their market value leveraging on lawsuits and bloated patent infringement claims, or putting on the top chair somebody that worked with the competitor and all of a sudden behaves like a newbie (perhaps their employers figured he would share secrets like if there were no NDAs), or everybody trying to move into the software business like if we needed no hardware at all to use said software. Raising their market value, essentially with speculation, instead of truly innovating and increasing sales rates.

So for them, employees are expendable assets

[tmedvick]

Here is a link to a story about just how insane the hiring process for this fool was: Surprising Revelations About HP's Board

It's probably also a clear indication that they are screwed from this point.

[Adama D. Brown]

The Wall Street Journal is now reporting that HP is going to bring in Meg Whitman as the replacement CEO.

Call me crazy, but when you're worried about financial mismanagement and huge monetary losses, why would you turn to someone who spent $143 million dollars on a failed campaign to become Governor of California?

[RickAgresta]

At least it was her own money, in large part...
She seems to have done well at eBay, and hey! she imported the Teletubbies

[tmedvick]

She might be the top person available to take that job. Who would take that job? Even with the crazy parachute when they fire you in a year, who could possibly want this job?

This job is a referendum on Leo's failed push to a new direction, but turning that around, in the public's eye, is going to be hard, hard work. Working for a crazy board that let go Mark Hurd for innuendo and couldn't be bothered to interview his replacement.

Meg has to come in and say, "we are going to stay around in the PC business, though now we have made our competition stronger in a market that has become thoroughly commoditized." She has to decide what to with WebOS, a brilliant product that has left a trail of destruction in its path.

Mostly she needs to move quickly and make sure all the blame gets hung on the outgoing guy and not the people who hired him. Also, Leo is the guy who brought her to the board.

Awesome stuff.

[r0k]

The Wall Street Journal is now reporting that HP is going to bring in Meg Whitman as the replacement CEO.

Call me crazy, but when you're worried about financial mismanagement and huge monetary losses, why would you turn to someone who spent $143 million dollars on a failed campaign to become Governor of California?

Worse than that, she also worked (briefly) for Goldman Sachs. That's a stain on any resume.

Here is a link to a story about just how insane the hiring process for this fool was: Surprising Revelations About HP's Board

It's probably also a clear indication that they are screwed from this point.

Wow. Just wow. Yes HP is screwed.

[Varjak]

I'd like a reference on that Goldman tidbit. Maybe she was briefly on the board, but I don't think she ever worked there.

And I think your opinion of GSCO is tainted by the media, which knows next to nothing.

[Adama D. Brown]

She might be the top person available to take that job. Who would take that job? Even with the crazy parachute when they fire you in a year, who could possibly want this job?

I'll take it. I couldn't possibly do the job any worse than the last few people they've had unless I started shooting the customers.

[RickAgresta]

I'll take it. I couldn't possibly do the job any worse than the last few people they've had unless I started shooting the customers.

Har! Virtual reps, sir!!

[Adama D. Brown]

She seems to have done well at eBay, and hey! she imported the Teletubbies

eBay certainly flourished under her administration, but the general consensus of most of the histories of eBay which have been written is that that is owed entirely to the fact that the internet exploded during that time period, and eBay had the luck to become the de facto online auction site. Basically, the position taken by most of the former eBay people is that they could have done exactly as well as they did with two slices of burnt whole wheat toast for a CEO.