Mark Hurd, this little CEO in his US$30 suit, who had mercilessly put hundreds of engineers from technical teams at HP France and Europe on the brink of the precipice, in order to 'streamline the business' for the benefit of the 'INDIA ! He must feel proud now, crime never pays, and you pay for it sooner or later, especially when you have that mentality...
AFP/JUSTIN SULLIVAN
Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd in November 2007.
The world's largest computer manufacturer, the American Hewlett-Packard (HP), finds itself again at the heart of a scandal with the resignation of its CEO Mark Hurd following an investigation into sexual harassment and abusive expense reports.
“CEO Mark Hurd has agreed with the Board of Directors (BoD) to step down with immediate effect”, the group said on Friday, following a "investigation" internal on "the facts and circumstances surrounding the sexual harassment charges against Hurd and HP". "The investigation determined that there was no breach of HP's policy on sexual harassment but there was a breach of the Code of Conduct" home, he continues.
FICTITIOUS EXPENSE NOTES
During a conference call, the legal director mike holston, explained that he “several weeks ago, a former employee of an HP contractor accused Mark of sexually harassing her while she was working on marketing activities” of the group. He added that an investigation revealed that Mr. Hurd had "a close personal relationship with an employee of a supplier" that he didn't have "never made public".
The lawyer for this employee specifies, however, that there was no "of an affair or sexual relationship between his client and Mark Hurd". The investigation revealed examples of "remuneration or reimbursement of expenses that were not related to a legitimate activity" of this person and Mr. Hurd notably submitted "repeatedly inaccurate expense claims that sought to conceal the nature of his relationship with this person", Mr. Holston continued.
Mr. Hurd will be replaced by the Chief Financial Officer Cathie Lesjak, 51, while searching for a new CEO. According to a document submitted to the stock market authorities, Mr. Hurd will receive severance pay of just over $12,2 million.
In an attempt to reassure, the group published at the same time preliminary results for its third quarter (postponed), while the final results are expected on August 19. The group published earnings per share of $1,08 excluding exceptional items, one hundred better than expected, and sales up 11% to $30,7 billion, while raising its forecasts.
Ms Lesjak said during the conference call that she had never been more "confident" in the group which is according to her "extremely well positioned". The action did not fall less than 8% to 42,49 dollars during electronic trading outside the session, shaken by this surprise resignation.
SERIES OF SCANDALS
HP is once again caught up in scandals, while Mark Hurd himself had become CEO replacing Patricia Dunn, forced to resign by a spy scandal within the board of directors.
Ms Dunn left her post in January 2007, being replaced by Mark Hurd, then General Manager. She had been convicted of using private detectives in 2005, who used false identities to obtain phone records of conversations of council members and journalists.
More recently, in April, HP found itself targeted by a corruption investigation by the German and Russian authorities.
source: the Monde.fr
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