TG Daily editor whines about working conditions and is told to stick it where the sun don’t shine.
Mark Hurd, now the former CEO of HP, did something that forced him to resign. That, in normal people speak, means he had to quit for being a bad boy. You and I may get fired under similar circumstances, and the press release would say, “Dumb ass employee screwed up and we had to can him.”
But Mark Hurd is no dumb ass employee. He urinates rivers of liquid gold, and has a direct line to whoever makes weather. At least that’s the speculation because, here is what the dude is getting for his troubles:
- A $12.2 million severance payment
- 330,177 performance based restricted stock options
- An extension until September 7, 2010 so that he can take a further 775,000 of stock that vested a week ago
HP got a document signed by Hurd that says, I’m fine, HP is great.
The unemployment rate in the US stands steady at 9.5%. People are losing their jobs through no fault of their own. We might be heading into a double dip recession.
But, let’s put aside the idea of hanging outside the houses of HP’s Board of Directors with pitchforks at hand, ready to take them down for their insensitivity.
Let’s hear what the running dogs of capitalism have to say about the man because, you’d think they’d be really into him, you know.
“Although most observers seemed to agree that Hurd did a great job turning around Hewlett-Packard, I pointed out that Hurd’s magic really ran out after his first two and a half years on the job. In those early years, HP’s stock went up 137%. Over the last two and a half years, however, H-P’s shares are down 20%. Although that performance beats the S&P 500, it badly trails rival IBM(IBM), where shares are up 20% over the same period.” (Source: Eric Jackson at The Street)
Furthermore, Hurd, and his other executives, during this period of less than stellar performance and economic woe, ended up taking everything they could get their hands on.
Hurd got paid $43 million in 2008. His CIO got $28 million. His Personal Systems EVP got a 263% pay rise. His family got to accompany him on business meetings and got $7,472 in travel expenses. His personal security cost $256,000 which is an utter waste of money because, it obviously didn’t stop the dude behaving badly.
I could go on, but I have to go sharpen my pitchfork, Screw it, let’s just storm the citadels of HP and tell the people running the show that we will not eat cake because, we can’t afford to eat cake.
