Ellison blasts HP 'idiots' for Hurd's exit Larry Ellison has ridden to Mark Hurd's defense and unleashed on HP's board for dropping its CEO following an investigation for sexual harassment. In a rare display of top-earner solidarity, Ellison slammed the board as "idiots" that failed to act in the best interests of HP's employees, shareholders, and partners by forcing …
Would Ellison see something wrong with firing an employee for knowingly making payments for work that was never done, or knowingly paying an employee or contractor for work that the employee or contractor never did? Not unless that employee is a CEO.
During his interviews with David Frost, Richard Nixon said, "Well, when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal."
Would Ellison paraphrase it, "Well, when a CEO does it, that means that it is not illegal."
"Hurd resigned from his $15m-a-year job on Friday after HP announced the sexual harassment investigation. HP said its investigation cleared Hurd of the sexual harassment claims but had turned up irregularities in his expense reporting.
Hurd is reported to have made claims of between $1,000 to $20,000 over two years for items such as meals and travel that were not considered business-related."
Hmmm, so you paid him $15m a year and you are bothered by $20k of dodgy expenses claims? Most of us simply get called up to accounts and requested to pay the money back, in cases where the amount is quite piffling compared to the expense claimed and the amount paid in salary.
Yes of course there was no other agenda at work here!
So that's why Hurd resigned. And that's why he cut a private deal with the miss, paid out of his own (deep) pocket.
Come on, since when do companies have a history of telling the truth ? They are not part of the legal system, they say what they want to say and if what they say is not true, tough cookies.
The HP board decided to do a cover-up, well duh. Meanwhile, if millionaire buddies pitch in for each other, that does not keep the rank and file at HP from not regretting Hurd one bit.
Besides, why agree to a private deal and resign if you have not done anything wrong ? No, the truth is that Hurd actually screwed HP over for a lot more than just 20 grand and he decided that, since the excrements have started to fly toward the fan, it was best to make a quick exit and not have a real inquiry uncover all the dirty secrets and meddling he is guilty of.
What I can't get my head around is the girl makes a claim of sexual harrassment one day, then says she never menat Hurd any harm the next and this isn't picked up by anyone?
Also how greedy can you be when you earna basic of $15M and fiddle your expenses. I am waiting for the bit where Sid James and Kenneth Williams join the HP board, (if they were still alive)!
Oh they are!
My Missus worked in accounts for a large corp many years ago and quite often dealt with people on the £150K+ bracket claiming for silly expenses like public toilet use of 20p, parking fares at supermarkets for £1-£2. Seriously, no word of a lie!
Meanwhile, we'll get called up to HR if be borrow a biro and some notepaper to do some writing on the way home for a work problem!
Does Ellison treat Oracle like his personal Fiefdom too then?
Hurd falsified expenses and, if you believe the story that he and Fisher have agreed on, didn't even get a jump out of it.
Hurd had to go. It's just a pity it wasn't a lot sooner and that he didn't get to go to jail.
He runs the company and makes $15,000,000 a year yet he's too cheap to pay the girl's expenses! What a cheap-skate ... he deserves everything they throw at him for being (a) a cheapskate, and (b) dumb enough to think that he'd get away with it.
He's supposed to have the smarts to run HP - yet he can't even run a relationship ... oh wait, he's an accountant isn't he?
Still it's interesting to see the Larry rides to the rescue - so now we have a good idea of what Larry thinks is morally acceptable behavior - what is it about corporate managers and CEO's that makes them such arseholes? Is it some sort of prerequisite for the job?
there's an episode for everything. like when Elaine became president of J Peterman, put the urban sombrero on the cover and expensed thousands of dollars of stuff to the company. Then the chief accountant phoned to tell her to justify her purchases beyond that she was the president. Shame about George's hat.
Newman get's all the attention, but I think the Peterman episodes are the best.
Isn't this the same guy who had his salary reports to the IRS modified to cover the 700K in expenses for meals with his family in one year? Yet that didn't trigger a resignation?
Something's rotten in Palo Alto, and this is the coverup.
The simple truth is that Hurd drug them into the tabloids, and the board is trying to keep it to a minimum.
And I'm with Marcus, If Ellison likes hurd so much, put him in charge of your executive compensation committee and tell him to cut costs there. He's a one trick pony, and it was starting to become obvious to the analysts. this latest escapade was just the icing on the cake.
Its not consider dubious expenses its considered theft and at $20k the board cant hide that. if some from the out side were to find out, the board could get into trouble. Lets see thats embezzlement , not paying income tax and possible money laundry. What happened is the lawyers said we need to do some thing about this . You combine this with the sexual harassment claim and you cant see why they got rid of him. You still think it's another motive ??
Oh and for the 700k, he lied to the IRS and didn't steal from the company.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
