Meg Whitman: We wuz robbed!

[her209]

IIRC, there was a ATOT member who invested heavily in HP. I can't remember his handle at the moment.

 

[NFS4]

Hewlett the dogs out!

What you did there, I see it.

 

[Dari]

Step 1 in acquiring a Company: Review their audited financial statement. Deloitte was their auditor is is one of the Big 4 firms.

Step 2 in acquiring a Company: Hire an independent accounting firm to perform due diligence along with a crap load of lawyers. HP hired KPMG, another one of the Big 4 firms.

If neither accounting firm knew about this - major fraud and collusion existed. And yes, HP is blaming both of the firms.

So what can HP do in this case? Or can the accounting firms hide behind the first amendment not unlike the credit rating agencies?

 

[dbk]

Wow Deloitte and KPMG gonna fire some people now!!

ALSO, PwC was hired by HP to look at all of this after a whistleblower came forward... E&Y audits HPs annual fin stmts.. LOL what a clusterfuck!

 

[bradley]

HP has been going downhill since Wozniak left. Meg was lucky to have even been struck by lightning once, great job HP.

 

[meloz]

There must of been lotsa unions involved in this one

Fiorina, Apotheker and now Whitman. There's something deeply rotten about a company's internal culture when the new CEO is as bad -if not worse- than the outgoing one. This is systemic, not down to individual incompetence.

 

[waggy]

amazing just how fucked up HP is. it's like they are trying to destroy the company.

 

[theevilsharpie]

Wow Deloitte and KPMG gonna fire some people now!!

ALSO, PwC was hired by HP to look at all of this after a whistleblower came forward... E&Y audits HPs annual fin stmts.. LOL what a clusterfuck!

Whitman is blaming the financial firms HP hired, and there may be some truth to those accusations. However, it's funny how much more "financial misfortune" HP seems to be enduring than Dell, Oracle, or IBM.

Just sayin' :whiste:

 

[abaez]

I have no idea how Meg Whitman is as lauded as she is. Anyone could have been CEO of eBay when the internet boom started in 1999 and made money. The growth from new people getting onto the internet skyrocketed and eBay naturally got more users just because of that, not because of anything Whitman did.

 

[lothar]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/nov/20/hewlett-packard-autonomy-improprieties-writedown
http://www.businessinsider.com/meg-whitman-hp-autonomy-blame-2012-11


Hewlett-Packard blames Autonomy 'improprieties' for $8.8bn writedown

Former managers at British tech firm deny claims and accuse HP of destroying a 'world leader'

Meg Whitman Says She's Not To Blame For The Autonomy Mess

Poor Meg. Running HP is a lot harder than being hired to run Ebay. I could have made billions running Ebay.

How is Meg Whitman responsible for the Autonomy mess?
Was she the CEO when HP acquired Autonomy?

 

[lothar]

HP has been going downhill since Mark Hurd left. Meg was lucky to have even been struck by lightning once, great job HP.

Fixed.

 

[rchiu]

How is Meg Whitman responsible for the Autonomy mess?
Was she the CEO when HP acquired Autonomy?

She was a board member but she said they "trusted" the account's numbers. Funny how she is supposed to be a technology person but have no clue what Autonomy's "super search engine" is just another snake oil.

 

[MaxPayne63]

She was a board member but she said they "trusted" the account's numbers. Funny how she is supposed to be a technology person but have no clue what Autonomy's "super search engine" is just another snake oil.

Considering they fooled two auditors I'm inclined to give HP's management the benefit of the doubt.

They're still a bunch of incompetents but for other reasons.

 

[lothar]

She was a board member but she said they "trusted" the account's numbers. Funny how she is supposed to be a technology person but have no clue what Autonomy's "super search engine" is just another snake oil.

You mean the same numbers that 2 of the big 4 auditors trusted?

 

[lothar]

IIRC, there was a ATOT member who invested heavily in HP. I can't remember his handle at the moment.

There are some in the stock market thread claiming that HP is cheap and undervalued.
They don't realize that it's a value trap.

 

[RocksteadyDotNet]

So what can HP do in this case? Or can the accounting firms hide behind the first amendment not unlike the credit rating agencies?

Yeah, same bullshit as with the POS CDO's during the GFC.

They were just 'opinions'.

 

[rchiu]

You mean the same numbers that 2 of the big 4 auditors trusted?

That's not the point. They are supposed to be a tech company. They should be evaluating Autonomy's software, if it is solid, it if has market, if customers find it usable and valuable, if it strategically align with HP's product offering. They shouldn't be basing it on how much cashflow Autonomy is making. Larry Ellison is smart enough to know Autonmy don't worth $6B because he knows software, software industry, it's customer. But dumb HP management with no clue what they are buying paid $11B for that crap.

That's the problem with HP don't know what they are doing and base all decision on consultant reports, accountants reports, auditors report. That's what happens to bunch of failed companies. Bunch of moron on the top.

 

[Andrew111]

She was a board member but she said they "trusted" the account's numbers. Funny how she is supposed to be a technology person but have no clue what Autonomy's "super search engine" is just another snake oil.

Not only was she on the board...but if I recall there were issues raised about this acquisition before the board voted to approve it unanimously (one simply wasn't present). You'd think you'd have some dissent or at least delay the acquisition if there were any issues with the numbers before the acquisition...guess financial dollars and cents/sense aren't important to HP.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Fiorina, Apotheker and now Whitman. There's something deeply rotten about a company's internal culture when the new CEO is as bad -if not worse- than the outgoing one. This is systemic, not down to individual incompetence.

Apotheker was, by far, the worst hire by HP and possibly in the history of CEOs for large companies. He bombed at SAP and was asked to leave and didn't even meet most of the board and was hired. Hiring him was truly mind-boggling and I bet they wish they would've kept Hurd.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

She was a board member but she said they "trusted" the account's numbers. Funny how she is supposed to be a technology person but have no clue what Autonomy's "super search engine" is just another snake oil.

Actually, Autonomy's technology IS incredibly slick. A couple of years ago, before anyone really knew who they were, I saw some demos of their products and they were very impressive. The problem was price -- for our particular usage, you had to spend well over $100K to even begin to play and that wasn't going to happen.

$11 billion for them though? I laughed at loud when I heard that price.

 

[CPA]

Step 1 in acquiring a Company: Review their audited financial statement. Deloitte was their auditor is is one of the Big 4 firms.

Step 2 in acquiring a Company: Hire an independent accounting firm to perform due diligence along with a crap load of lawyers. HP hired KPMG, another one of the Big 4 firms.

If neither accounting firm knew about this - major fraud and collusion existed. And yes, HP is blaming both of the firms.

This. Some of you dunderheads blaming Meg or saying she should have known need to understand how business works. Companies pay these "experts" millions of dollars to provide them with due diligence. It's not like Meg is looking at the books. If the experts didn't see it or say they didn't see it, then why is Meg at fault?

 

[waggy]

lol and people say a Good CEO is not worth the money. HP is proof they are.

 

[techs]

This. Some of you dunderheads blaming Meg or saying she should have known need to understand how business works. Companies pay these "experts" millions of dollars to provide them with due diligence. It's not like Meg is looking at the books. If the experts didn't see it or say they didn't see it, then why is Meg at fault?

If I am reading it right about half the loss is due to the fact the companies software was not worth what they thought it was. An error in judgement.

 

[Pr0d1gy]

lol and people say a Good CEO is not worth the money. HP is proof they are.

A Good CEO is a very subjective statement. A "Good" CEO in your eyes might be someone who increased profitability by offshoring production, producing more in the short term but nearly crippling the long term earning potential within this country. So, really, what is a Good CEO and how much would it be really worth to have someone do some simple middle school difficulty math and earn more money? Most of the people we call CEO's today would have been called traitors 150 years ago.

 

[Genx87]

HP and AMD are a match made in hell. HP should go all the way and over pay for AMD to vertically integrate.