The SoapVox

The Mercury News (via Dan Gillmor’s blog) informs that Patricia Dunn, aka The Wicked Witch of the Board, has resigned from the board of directors (not only her position as chairperson) effective immediately.

All I can say about it is…IT’S ABOUT DAMN TIME!!!

According to the Mercury, the announcement was made during the news conference held today in Palo Alto. When this conference was announced, I hoped this would be the reason…but I never really expected such smarts from this company…miracles do happen. They may be ethically impaired, but I’m pretty sure they didn’t like all the crap that has been falling on them on the newspapers and in the few blogs that seem to care.

Now, this part is interesting:

Hurd has denied knowing any details the investigation, such as
investigators impersonating board members and reporters to obtain their
private phone records. But he has come under scrutiny this week as
e-mails and one report in March suggested he might have known about or
approved some aspects of the investigation.

In a Groklaw post from yesterday that I was saving to post about today after the conference, PJ lets us know that an article in the Washington Post has information from a dozen emails from HP executive and board members (no, the irony does not pass by me…but the press has always had a free pass on this kind of thing). Among other things, one of the emails talks about the fact that Mark V. Hurd, who has become the chairperson for the board of HP now that Dunn is gone, may have known about the “sting” and may have approved at least parts of it…so…they got rid of the Wicked Witch but gave the keys to one of her henchmen…how…HPish.

“I understand a written report was addressed to me and others, but I
did not read it,” Hurd said today. “I could have, I should have,” he
said.

Isn’t that nice? I hope somebody nails these idiots.

Pamela’s post also talks about what the plan was for getting a keylogger into Dawn Kawamoto’s computer…and how it seems like *both* Dunn and Hurd approved the illegal attempt. As I said…out with the old, in with the same.

I’m starting to think that the only way for HP’s board to pass an ethics test is for the entire board to get kicked out and bringing new people in…outside people, because if the leadership is this unethical and corrupted, it’s a good bet to say that so are their underlings.

Oh, the Mercury also says that next week Dunn, Hurd and others will be testifying before the oversight and investigations subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee (damn those long names). If what Rep. Bart Stupak, Democrat from Michigan, said on Thursday is true, I expect and hope that Wall Street will finally take notice and hit HP hard where it really hurts. What does he say? Oh, just this:

Given allegations and media reports regarding Mr. Hurd’s possible
knowledge of HP’s various deceptive investigative techniques, I would
expect that members and staff of the subcommittee will take a hard look
at whether it is appropriate for Mr. Hurd to appear before the
subcommittee next week,

So…if the reports and allegations are true, and Hurd knew, the Wall Street darling may be in trouble…and WS may pay him back the same way it pays those darlings that get caught, by cutting down the price in the stock…I hope it happens, so the shareholders suit nails them even harder.

Technorati Tags: hp leak, hp pretexting, hp scandal, hp illegal investigation, patricia dunn, mark v hurd, mark hurd, hewlett-packard, hp board investigation

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