Hurd avoids mention of HP scandal
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Hewlett-Packard Co. CEO Mark Hurd discussed the computer and printer maker's growth prospects during a tech conference Monday but didn't mention the ongoing scandal involving his company's attempts to uncover the source of boardroom leaks to the media.
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Piling it on HP today released a message from CEO Mark Hurd that vaguely addresses the company's ongoing spy scandal. The missive serves more as an advertisement than a real confrontation with the issues affecting HP.â¦
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(InfoWorld) - Patricia Dunn, Hewlett-Packard's embattled chairman, will be relieved of those duties after the board's Jan. 18, 2007, meeting, but will continue as a director. The announcement came Tuesday morning, followingÂ meetings of the boardÂ over the weekend and Monday. Mark Hurd, HP's chief executive officer and president will also take on the chairman's job. Richard Hackborn, who has been on the board since 1992, has been chosen as the lead independent director as of January. Dunn has been under intense pressure to step down as chairman after it came to light last week that the board of directorsÂ carried out an investigationÂ to determine who among the board leaked confidential information to journalists. The board admitted in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that the internal probe involved "pretexting," where employees of an investigative firm hired by the company pretended to be reporters to gain access to their telephone records. Federal authorities, including the U.S. Department of Justice and a congressional committee,Â are questioning the board's conductÂ in the probe and the California attorney general has said thatÂ charges are likely to be filed. "The recent events that have taken place follow an important investigation that was required after the board sought to resolve the persistent disclosure of confidential information from within its ranks. These leaks had the potential to affect not only the stock price of HP but also that of other publicly traded companies," Dunn said in a written statement released by HP. "Unfortunately, the investigation, which was conducted by third parties, included certainÂ inappropriate techniques. These went beyond what we understood them to be, and I apologize that they were employed." Dunn pledged to take action to make sure that such "inappropriate investigative techniques" do not happen again. "They have no place in HP," she said in the statement.
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(InfoWorld) - Hewlett-Packard chief executive officer Mark Hurd blamedÂ the scandalÂ that has besieged his company on "a rogue investigation" that got out of hand, in an advance copy of his Congressional testimony released by a House Subcommittee on Wednesday. "How did such an abuse of privacy occur in a company renowned for its privacy? The end came to justify the means," Hurd wrote. "The investigation team became so focused on finding the source of the leaks that they lost sight of the privacy of reporters and others. They lost sight of the values HP has always represented." Former HP Chairman Patricia Dunn,Â forced to resignÂ Sept. 21 because of the scandal, defended in her testimony her decision toÂ investigate the leaksÂ of confidential board discussions to the news media. In her testimony, Dunn wrote that she knew investigators were obtaining the phone records of people it was investigating. Lawyers for HP and for an investigation firm carrying out the probe assured her the tactics were legal, she wrote. "I was fully convinced that HP would never engage in anything illegal," she wrote. "Given that attorneys were unambiguously overseeing the investigation ... reinforced my understanding that the investigations were being handled appropriately." Both are among severalÂ witnesses expected at a hearingÂ before the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Thursday in Washington. The committee is looking into the practice of "pretexting," or using false pretenses to gain access to confidential records. Investigators hired by HP to find the source of leaks engaged in pretexting to get hold of the phone records of directors, HP employees and reporters who cover the Palo Alto, California, technology company. Hurd, echoing comments he made in a news conference last Friday at HP's headquarters, said he was determined to get to the bottom of this episode and to try to restore HP's image. "I pledge that HP will take whatever steps are necessary to make sure nothing like this ever happens again," he wrote, "and that this company will regain not just its reputation ... but its pride." Although much of the criticism of the scandal surrounds the tactics used by the investigators, Dunn wrote in her testimony that equal consideration should be given to the leaks from within the company that damaged HP. HP's board was notorious for its leaks to news media and such disclosures made it difficult for the board to deal with important issues candidly, she wrote. Dunn explained that board deliberations on the selection of a replacement for former CEO Carly Fiorina in 2005 were leaked. She cited a BusinessWeek magazine story "disclosing opinions about various candidates and revealing details about ... the search process." "If you were a top CEO candidate, would you want to work for a company whose board could not be trusted to keep such information confidential? HP is very lucky to have been able to recruit Mark Hurd under such circumstances," Dunn wrote. "I wish fervently that none of this had ever happened," Dunn continued. "But boards have an unquestionable obligation to take steps to prevent [leaks]. That certain steps taken during the investigation went well beyond what was appropriate does not undermine the importance of the board's mission in this matter." Hurd also outlined several steps the company is taking internally to clarify its privacy policy for employees and to emphasize it in employee training programs.ADVERTISEMENTMAKE SOA REAL WITH IBM WEBSPHERE PODCASTStreamline processes and maximize efficiency within a proven service oriented architecture. Take back control of your business processes with IBM WebSphere.
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JUST IN At a press conference in Palo Alto, Calif. Friday, Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd addressed the issues surrounding the investigation into a boardroom leak, saying former chairwoman Patricia Dunn is fully resigning her post from the board. More coverage of this latest development coming shortly.
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Hewlett-Packard Co. HPQ.N Chief   Executive Mark Hurd told lawmakers on Thursday there were no   excuses for a probe of boardroom leaks that led investigators   to deceptively obtain private telephone records.
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SACRAMENTO, Calif  - California's attorney general will seek indictments on Wednesday in Hewlett-Packard Co.'s  boardroom leak probe against former Chairman Patricia Dunn and others but not Chief Executive Mark Hurd, BusinessWeek reported in its online edition.
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Hewlett-Packard Co.'s CEO, Mark Hurd, followed the company's former board chairman on the hot seat when he testified before a contentious House subcommittee looking into the boardroom leak scandal.
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By Pete CareySTAFF  Congressional investigators are questioning Hewlett-Packard Chief Executive Mark Hurd's sale of stock options, worth $1.37 million, which occurred 15 days before the company's controversial boardroom leak investigation became public.
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California Attorney General Bill   Lockyer said on Friday he does not yet have evidence linking   Hewlett-Packard Co. HPQ.N Chief Executive Mark Hurd to crime   in the state's investigation of the computer maker.
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By JORDAN ROBERTSON  SAN JOSE, Calif. - With Hewlett-Packard Co.'s stock tumbling, CEO Mark Hurd continued to face questions about what he knew of HP's efforts to ferret out a boardroom leak.
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By MICHAEL LIEDTKE Associated Press  SAN FRANCISCO -- Hewlett-Packard Co.'s stock price dropped by 5 percent Thursday as investors reacted to reports that Chief Executive Officer Mark Hurd knew more about the computer and printer maker's elaborate spying program than previously thought.
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Hewlett-Packard chief executive officer Mark Hurd blamedÂ the scandalÂ that has besieged his company on "a rogue investigation" that got out of hand, in an advance copy of his Congressional testimony released by a House Subcommittee on Wednesday.
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(InfoWorld) - Hewlett-PackardÂ Chief Executive Officer and President Mark Hurd Friday confirmed that he approved a probe of HP employees, board members and journalists in an effort to find out who on the HP board was leaking confidential information outside of the company. However, Hurd said he did not approve the placement of tracing technology in an e-mail to a journalist, and apologized for this and any other "inappropriate" tactics -- such as physical surveillance and obtaining phone records under false pretenses, known as "pretexting" -- that HP undertook in its investigation to find the source of information leaks. "I extend my sincere apology to those journalists who were investigated and to everyone who was impacted," Hurd said. "The inappropriate techniques that were applied do not reflect the value of HP. ... These are not indicative of how we conduct business at HP." Hurd also said he accepted the resignation of Patricia Dunn from her position as chairman of the HP board and a director, effective immediately, and thanked her for her eight years of service on HP's board. Previously, Dunn was to stay on as a director of the board, but would step down as chairman in January. Hurd now takes on the role of chairman of HP's board. HP also appointed Bart M. Schwartz, a former U.S. prosecutor, as board counsel. His role will be to perform an independent review of investigative methods and the company's Standards of Business Conduct processes, and to make future recommendations for implementing best practices. He will report to Hurd and HP Chief Financial Officer Bob Wayman. Hurd said that HP had the "best intentions" when it began the first of two phases of a probe into boardroom leaks, but said it "turned in a direction we could not have anticipated" and he takes full accountability for what transpired. "I take this very seriously and commit to getting to the bottom of this," he said. "Our job is to fix this and get back to the job of running the business." Hurd did not field reporter questions at the press conference, at which HP searched attendees' bags and did not allow video cameras. Hurd plans to appear at an U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations hearing about HP's investigation on Thursday, Sept. 28., and said he did not want questions on Friday to interfere with that testimony. Mike Holston, a partner with law firm Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, also spoke at the press conference on Friday. HP appointed the firm, which reports directly to Hurd, on Sept. 8 to investigate the tactics used by HP and third-party investigators in its probe. Holston said his firm has read more than 1 million pages of documents about two internal HP investigations -- called Kona 1 and Kona 2 -- and is still in the process of putting together the details of what took place. He declined to identify by name the people HP investigated. However, Holston did confirm that HP worked with two third-party organizations -- Security Outsourcing Services and Action Research Group -- to investigate employees, board members and/or former board members and their families, and journalists and their families. That investigation included physical surveillance, obtaining social security numbers of those being investigated to obtain phone records and the placement of e-mail tracing technology in an e-mail to one journalist, he said. Friday's news conference followed a steady stream of news reports over the last two weeks with revelations of actions HP and its outside investigators allegedly took to discover the source of company leaks to the media. Schemes allegedly considered included an attempt to plant spies inside the San Francisco newsrooms of The Wall Street Journal and CNET Networks Inc. posing as clerical workers or janitors, and a sting operation in which a fake anonymous source within HP would e-mail CNET reporter Dawn Kamamoto with a tip and track her e-mails to see if she contacted her other HP sources about the tip. Holston said Friday that while there was evidence that HP considered starting undercover operations in the newsrooms of the Journal and CNET, there is no evidence that such operations ever took place. He also confirmed that HP did try to track one reporterâs e-mail through tracing technology, but did not name the reporter involved and said there was no evidence at this time that the HP investigation team was aware that the tracer was activated.
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By JORDAN ROBERTSON  SAN FRANCISCO - The congressional panel investigating Hewlett-Packard Co.'s boardroom spying probe has demanded that CEO Mark Hurd explain $1.37 million worth of options he exercised just before the scandal became public, two congressmen said Wednesday.
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By Ian Watson  THE scandal that has erupted following the disclosure that Hewlett-Packard had been spying on some of its directors now appears to have  enveloped chief executive Mark Hurd.
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The California attorney general   said on Friday there was no evidence yet linking   Hewlett-Packard Co. HPQ.N Chief Executive Mark Hurd to any   criminal wrongdoing, as scrutiny grew over his role in the PC   and printer maker's probe of boardroom leaks.