HP CEO Mark Hurd rewarded with a $40m severance after being forced to resign

[GTKeeper]

I'm normally a free market guy...a company is free to pay its people whatever at their own peril if they make a sh*tty product. But paying a guy severance after committing a fireable offense just to avoid the public scrutiny of a trial that would likely hurt shareholder value is patently unfair. You and I would be canned with prejudice, as others here have indicated. The CEO's employment contract + the desire of the company to minimize its public relations problem trump fairness and concepts of justice in most peoples eyes.

Very well said. I think the bottom line is that in Corporate America once you are in the 'executives club' you are in the club. Its obvious and very well known that the 'club' plays by much different rules than everyone else.

I mean look at the CEO of Home Depot with his massive parachute a few years back, who then went to Chrysler. He will never ever ever have a non-executive job, because he's 'in the club'.

 

[Craig234]

For Craig, it is, since the "progressive" viewpoint is evidently the only one that should be considered.

Wrong again, once again your centrist bias causing you to get it wrong.

Progressive: 2+2=4
Right-winger: 2+2=400

Blanghorst: 2+2 is clearly about 200, both the right and left are extremists.

Progressive: no, not everything is split down the middle. If the right said 1000, would you say the answer is 500? And when they say it's 10,000, do you say it's 5,000?

Blanghorst: ya, I'm the one wrong here, when you are the one saying only the answer of 4 should be looked at.

Progressive: No, I didn't say only look at 4, you said that. Look at 500, and 1,000 and 10,000. But get it right, the answer is 4.

Don't say otherwise and claim 4 is extreme just because the right is so wrong. That's your 'centrist bias' that makes you say any answer from either 'side' is wrong.

You aren't using logic, you are falling for 'identity politics' where you are not on the 'left' or 'right' and you are just assuming irrationally they are wrong. That's bias.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

For Craig, it is, since the "progressive" viewpoint is evidently the only one that should be considered.

Wrong again, once again your centrist bias causing you to get it wrong.

--snip--

You're right Craig, let me fix the original text you quoted from me to be more accurate:

For Craig, it is, since the "progressive" viewpoint is evidently the only one that should be considered the correct viewpoint.

 

[lord_emperor]

Then find another job at another company. Ain't it wonderful how the free market and capitalism works vs broad brush of government regulation. Hey maybe you could work for the government.

Please name this magical company that actually pays a fair wage spectrum from the janitor up to the CEO.

It doesn't exist.

Even if it did, it would be flooded with applications and not have any jobs to give anyway.

Then buy another brand of printer.

All ink prices are equally ridiculous.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Hurd#Hewlett-Packard

Hurd has reputation for aggressive cost-cutting. He laid off 15,200 workers — 10% of the workforce — shortly after becoming CEO. Other cost-cutting includes reducing the IT department from 19,000 to 8,000, reducing the number of software applications that HP uses from 6,000 to 1,500, and consolidating the HP's 85 data centers to 6. In the recent recession, Hurd imposed a 5% pay cut on all employees and removed many benefits. Hurd himself took a pay cut of 20% in his base salary, although the compensation committee increased his bonus by the same amount.

LOL

In 2008, Hurd's total compensation was $33,952,237, including a base salary of $1,450,000, stock award of $7,907,660, cash bonus of $23,931,882, and $662,695 in perquisites and other compensation.[12] It was the largest bonus of any CEO in 2008, although Hurd himself implemented wage freeze on the employees.

Nice guy.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Nice guy.

Good catch -- I forgot to mention the 5% pay cut he implemented and I believe that he also suspended 401k matches for awhile, though I might be confusing him with someone else.

 

[MotF Bane]

Wrong again, once again your centrist bias causing you to get it wrong.

Progressive: 2+2=4
Right-winger: 2+2=400

Blanghorst: 2+2 is clearly about 200, both the right and left are extremists.

Progressive: no, not everything is split down the middle. If the right said 1000, would you say the answer is 500? And when they say it's 10,000, do you say it's 5,000?

Blanghorst: ya, I'm the one wrong here, when you are the one saying only the answer of 4 should be looked at.

Progressive: No, I didn't say only look at 4, you said that. Look at 500, and 1,000 and 10,000. But get it right, the answer is 4.

Don't say otherwise and claim 4 is extreme just because the right is so wrong. That's your 'centrist bias' that makes you say any answer from either 'side' is wrong.

You aren't using logic, you are falling for 'identity politics' where you are not on the 'left' or 'right' and you are just assuming irrationally they are wrong. That's bias.

LMAO. Craig, you have outdone yourself again.

 

[yllus]

LMAO. Craig, you have outdone yourself again.

You have to hand it to him though, he knows how to win an argument. All he has to do is make up all of the other person's responses.

 

[shangshang]

I love how in America we reward the white collar corrupted individuals. I wish more of this stuff would happen. This way it would hasten the collapse of capitalism, which will be a good thing. Nice.

 

[Phokus]

Please name this magical company that actually pays a fair wage spectrum from the janitor up to the CEO.

It doesn't exist.

Even if it did, it would be flooded with applications and not have any jobs to give anyway.



All ink prices are equally ridiculous.



LOL



Nice guy.

I love how he rapes his own employees and takes a big bonus for himself... then the fucking moron conservative contingent here scream, 'well if they don't like it, they can find another place to work, that's capitalism!'

NEWSFLASH: THERE ARE NO FUCKING JOBS TO JUMP TO YOU DUMB AS HELL REPUBLICANS

 

[lothar]

Hurd doesn't deserve his severance because of the performance of HP. He was already well compensated for that. This is merely HP throwing in the towel and not wanting to have a legal battle over his employment contract. That is what it boils down to here, nothing more, nothing less.

If that was purely the case, then surely it would have been less expensive for them to keep him than pay a $40 million severance?

 

[lothar]

Five easy steps to enlightenment on how this occurred:

1. HP's board of directors determined how much Mr. Hurd should be paid as CEO.

2. Mr. Hurd, along with being HP's CEO, was also the chairman of HP's board of directors from 2005 until 2010.

3. As such, Mr. Hurd had significant influence on who is appointed to and remained upon HP's board of directors.

4. Being on HP's board of directors pays something over $275,000 USD a year (source).

5. What reason could HP's board of directors possibly have to stay on Mr. Hurd's good side?

From what I can tell Mr. Hurd did a lot of good for the company, but let's not be silly - he didn't do $40 million of severance worth of good. I don't advocate hard salary limits or anything, but this is clearly excessive.

HP's stock has more than doubled since he's been CEO.
Compare that with the S&P 500 which has gone nowhere the past 5 years and Dell which has gone to death valley.

Mark Hurd didn't become Chairman until September 22, 2006.
Prove to me that half(or more) the people here were appointed by him based on his "significant influence".
http://h30261.www3.hp.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=71087&p=irol-govBoard
Hint: Don't bother...Six of HP's current 10 board members have been directors since 2006 or earlier when Patricia Dunn was Chairman(err...woman).

 

[lothar]

You have a 'centrist bias' leading you to distort and exaggerate to justify your position.

Huh?

 

[lothar]

Wrong again, once again your centrist bias causing you to get it wrong.

Progressive: 2+2=4
Right-winger: 2+2=400

Blanghorst: 2+2 is clearly about 200, both the right and left are extremists.

Progressive: no, not everything is split down the middle. If the right said 1000, would you say the answer is 500? And when they say it's 10,000, do you say it's 5,000?

Blanghorst: ya, I'm the one wrong here, when you are the one saying only the answer of 4 should be looked at.

Progressive: No, I didn't say only look at 4, you said that. Look at 500, and 1,000 and 10,000. But get it right, the answer is 4.

Don't say otherwise and claim 4 is extreme just because the right is so wrong. That's your 'centrist bias' that makes you say any answer from either 'side' is wrong.

You aren't using logic, you are falling for 'identity politics' where you are not on the 'left' or 'right' and you are just assuming irrationally they are wrong. That's bias.

So in conclusion,
Only "Progressives" have the correct answers.
All others are wrong.

 

[Kappo]

So in conclusion,
Only "Progressives" have the correct answers.
All others are wrong.

You pretty much summed up every single one of Craig's posts in 3 sentences.

 

[DaveJ]

HP's stock has more than doubled since he's been CEO.
Compare that with the S&P 500 which has gone nowhere the past 5 years and Dell which has gone to death valley.

You have a strange definition of "doubling".

http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=...=on;ohlcvalues=0;logscale=on;source=undefined

HP stock value for the week of Sept. 25, 2006 (Hurd took over as CEO on Sept. 22) - $36.69
HP stock value for the week of Aug. 9, 2010 - $42.60

 

[lothar]

You have a strange definition of "doubling".

http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=...=on;ohlcvalues=0;logscale=on;source=undefined

HP stock value for the week of Sept. 25, 2006 (Hurd took over as CEO on Sept. 22) - $36.69
HP stock value for the week of Aug. 9, 2010 - $42.60

You're the one confusing yourself.
He's been CEO since April 2005.
He's been Chairman since September 2006.

 

[DaveJ]

You're the one confusing yourself.
He's been CEO since April 2005.
He's been Chairman since September 2006.

Doh! That'll teach me to post this late. I need more sleep...

 

[Lanyap]

Like catching catfish with stinky bait. She knew what she was doing. She hired Gloria Allread. Mark Turd, as his current and former lowly employees like to call him are rejoicing.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

If that was purely the case, then surely it would have been less expensive for them to keep him than pay a $40 million severance?

In the view of the board, they couldn't and I do applaud them for at least getting rid of him. The findings of the investigation were public and if the CEO admitted to cheating on expense reports and wasn't fired, how could you seriously fire Joe Blow salesperson who did the same thing?

Plus you never know what other dirty laundry might have been turned up.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

So in conclusion,
Only "Progressives" have the correct answers.
All others are wrong.

Craig should just put that in his signature to save himself from typing his wall of text posts, since they all invariably boil down to the statements above.

 

[yllus]

HP's stock has more than doubled since he's been CEO.
Compare that with the S&P 500 which has gone nowhere the past 5 years and Dell which has gone to death valley.

So?

Mark Hurd didn't become Chairman until September 22, 2006.
Prove to me that half(or more) the people here were appointed by him based on his "significant influence".

I did not claim everyone on the board was appointed by Mr. Hurd. If you read the sentence I wrote, that's rather clear.

If you think that Mr. Hurd didn't exert significant influence over the rest of the board as per his chairmanship, you're rather naive.

 

[lothar]

If you think that Mr. Hurd didn't exert significant influence over the rest of the board as per his chairmanship, you're rather naive.

If he did, he obviously would still have his job.
Whatever influence he had clearly wasn't "significant" enough.

 

[spidey07]

After seeing all he did for the company in a short time I'd say he was worth every penny of the money. That severance is but a drop in the bucket of all the money he generated for HP.

 

[Red Dawn]

After seeing all he did for the company in a short time I'd say he was worth every penny of the money. That severance is but a drop in the bucket of all the money he generated for HP.

Actually he was worth the severance because if he would have fought them it would have cost HP and their Shareholders a hell of a lot more money. So it was worth it just to get rid of him.

Think about it, they didn't give him that money out of the kindness of their hearts or their gratitude.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

After seeing all he did for the company in a short time I'd say he was worth every penny of the money. That severance is but a drop in the bucket of all the money he generated for HP.

His performance is why he was paid nearly $40 million in cash bonuses the last two years, not to mention the stock grants and other perks. He broke rules and shouldn't have been given a dime in severance, but they were afraid of a lawsuit and just wanted to turn the page.

BTW, I love how he got credit for HP's IT changes in that Wikipedia article. They hired a new CIO from Dell (Mott) and he was told to lower costs. The CIO was the one that came up with all of those changes, not Hurd. If all a CEO has to do his to tell is direct reports to "lower cost" and then he gets credit for everything, sign me up.