[stevewepay]

The sad part is that it's Carly Fiorina's fault for turning HP into the mess it was. And now she touts that as the reason why she should be president. It's a sick joke that she thinks gutting one of Silicon Valley's preeminent companies makes her worthy of being president.

HP was the first company to pioneer Silicon Valley culture, ie. The HP Way. It was only after Fiorina's tenure that HP turned into a shadow of its former self. They were one of the first to aggressively lay people off in the US and hire in India, and under her, they lost "The HP Way".

Every CEO since Fiorina has been a complete joke. Now Whitman is coming in to finish the job.

[blizkreeg]

According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carly_Fiorina#Resignation, Fiorina made over $100M in her time at HP. So she makes out like a bandit and leaves the company in a ditch, rattled, and struggling to regain composure. Do these people have any conscience?

[mtgx]

What about the board? There should be a "golden ass-kick" rather than a golden parachute when CEOs have such poor performance. Does anyone else remember Leo Apotheker? I believe they gave him like $25 million when he left a year later after he took the job.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A9o_Apotheker

[prodmerc]

Yes, they have a conscience, and it's telling them they did nothing wrong...

[mjn]

There was an article in the Houston paper a few weeks ago whose main theme was trying to explain to confused readers how Fiorina could possibly be running for president using her record as HP CEO as an actual positive. In Houston, formerly Compaq headquarters until HP bought and immediately dismantled it, she's not getting a lot of primary votes...

[seunosewa]

What precisely did Carly Fiorina do weong, and what precisely should she have done instead?

[scholia]

Spending $25 billion on a PC company was a pretty dumb idea. Spending $25 billion on Compaq, which had spent almost $10 billion on DEC, was even dumber: either it duplicated the existing business (PCs) or complicated the existing business (severs) by adding duplicate products.

Trying to buy PriceWaterhouseCooper for $14 billion might have been a good move but it was a dumb price. IBM later bought it for $4 billion.

I did go and see her talk at Comdex. She was remarkably clueless about technology.

[jsudhams]

I think she kind of kill the HP Way read http://www.paloaltoonline.com/weekly/morgue/2002/2002_04_10....

[chrisbennet]

Thanks, that article was very helpful.

[chrisbennet]

That's a good question. I don't know why someone downvoted you. My best friend worked for HP and disliked her but I too would be interested in knowing the answers to your questions.

[toast0]

OTOH, HPQ has /8 netblocks, and they're adjacent, that's gotta be valuable!

[notNow]

It seems to me that she was engaged in org restructuring a la Perestroika under Gorbachev rule of the USSR i.e. the enemy within.

[perewhat]

Are you suggesting Gorbachev was the USSR's enemy? He brought Russia out of the dark ages of government run socialism i.e. communism. He and Reagan gave Russia the new found joys of capitalism it enjoys today and brings the world all those cool I Love Russia YouTube videos.

[hydrogen18]

"Mrs. Fiorina, tear down this wall!"