Note To The Next H-P CEO: Don’t Use Porn Stars To Close Deals With High-Level Customers, Government

August 9, 2010

Although we don’t know the full story yet, the veil is slowly lifting over HP’s latest sex scandal.

HP CEO Mark Hurd hired an aging porn star to play a cute “femme de compagnie” a.k.a “hostess” for fellow “high-level” HP executives and “clients.”

Such a crucial position at HP that Hurd felt obliged to interview the “soft-core” porn star himself for the job. Pretty hands-on kind of guy for a quite button-down executive!

HP Way? Using porn stars to close deals

For sure, this is really raising some questions on exactly how some of these big IT deals are ‘closed’ at HP; which by the way announced better numbers than expected. Sweet!

However this interesting”menage a trois” [Hurd is married] didn’t seem to please HP’s board of directors presided by… Hurd himself!

In a following investigation, HP’s chief was accused of submitting inaccurate expense reports to the amount of $20,000 that the company says concealed his relationship with the porn star.

And voila! Instead of celebrating his $100 million renewal contract with HP, Hurd is fired with “only” $35 million in severance pay.

Not bad, considering that he’s now “off the hook” – having settled with this unknown actress that should remained unknown! – and has time to contemplate his next job… at IBM perhaps!

Shareholders: time to bring HP Board to Court!

Common HP, Mark Hurd is no Bill Clinton, who after all got to keep his job!

Worse, because of this “lack of judgement” HP shareholders lost cumulatively billions of dollars and should demand a full explananation from HP’s Board, and why not, sue them!

On a good note, the Hurd sex scandal bodes well for retired porn stars that should have no problem as hostesses for high-level executives in Corporate America! Viva capitalism!

TechPulse 360


Analyst: H-P Is No Direct Competitor To IBM

February 27, 2009
Roger Kay, President, Endpoint Technologies

Roger Kay, President, Endpoint Technologies

Quite often these days, people compare the results and business models of IBM and Hewlett-Packard (H-P) as if they were direct competitors. In truth, they do compete in several key areas, notably enterprise hardware and services. But in other ways, they are very different beasts.

Services help smooth IBM revenues, profits

Under Sam Palmisano, IBM has transformed itself into an enterprise services-led company, with that
division accounting for $39.3 billion or 38% of the company’s $103.6 billion revenue in 2008.

By contrast, H-P, even with the EDS acquisition, derived only $22.4 billion or 18.9% of its $118.3 billion fiscal
2008 revenue from services.

In many cases, IBM’s services division pulls the company’s other groups along in its slipstream. When an IBM services sales team wins an enterprise customer with a complex set of requirements, it is often able to bring the hardware, software, and financing divisions along as well.

Services have a way of smoothing out a company’s revenue picture.  Long-term signings create a huge pile of deferred revenue, which comes in handy during lean years like this one.  IBM’s financials reflect the steadying nature of its large services business.

Read the rest of this entry »


H-P Surprises With Better Than Expected Fourth Quarter Results; Sees A Flourishing 2009

November 18, 2008
H-P CEO, Mark Hurd, is managing the world's financial crisis better than anyone else in the tech industry

H-P CEO, Mark Hurd, is managing the world's financial crisis better than anyone else in the tech industry

Early this morning, H-P came out with preliminary financial results for its 2008 fourth quarter and a 2009 outlook that were better than expected.

  1. Fourth quarter net revenue up 19%, or $5.3 billion, from a year earlier to $33.6 billion;

  2. Fiscal 2008 net revenue up 13%, or $14.1 billion, to $118.4 billion.

In spite of what it appears to be a very difficult year, the Palo Alto, Calif., company expects a surge of revenues in 2009, in the range of $127.5 billion to $130.0 billion.

And that’s taking into account the current economic environment and the relative strength of the U.S. dollar that will impact the full year revenue projections of roughly 6 to 7 percentage points.

[Photo credit: Dan Farber]

Bravo H-P!


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