SEC cites HP over director's departure
82659
Hewlett-Packard Co. , the world's largest printer and personal-computer maker, settled regulators' claims that it misled investors by failing to say why a director resigned amid a probe of boardroom leaks.
133859
Hewlett-Packard Co. HPQ.N said on   Tuesday Chairman Patricia Dunn will step down on January 18,   2007, after coming under fire for ordering a controversial   board investigation into boardroom leaks to the media.
343507
By Clint Swett, The Sacramento Bee, Calif.  Sep. 15--The most high-profile casualties of the boardroom spying scandal  at Hewlett-Packard Co. are the two directors who resigned their posts on  Tuesday.
518477
Hewlett-Packard Co.'s (HP's) board of directors has approved a severance package including $3.7 million in stock options for its general counsel, who resigned Thursday amid a growing scandal into HP's conduct during an investigation into board leaks.
94317
By Pete Carey, San Jose Mercury News, Calif.  Dec. 14--Congressional investigators are questioning Hewlett-Packard CEO  Mark Hurd's sale of stock options that gave him $1.37 million in gains, 15  days before the company's controversial boardroom-leak investigation became  public.
688594
PALO ALTO, California  - Hewlett-Packard   Co.HPQ.N Chairman Patricia Dunn resigned as a director on   Friday as the embattled computer maker unveiled new details of   the boardroom leak probe, including the role of chief executive   Mark Hurd.
269671
By Connie Guglielmo  Hewlett-Packard Co. Chairwoman Patricia Dunn agreed to resign in January in an effort to defuse a widening scandal  surrounding the company's use of private  investigators to access directors' phone records.
743417
PALO ALTO, California  - Hewlett-Packard Co. on   Friday said Chairman Patricia Dunn had resigned effective   immediately as pressure on the computer maker mounts over an   internal investigation into boardroom leaks.
663322
(InfoWorld) - In an advance copy of his Congressional testimony released by a House Subcommittee on Wednesday, Hewlett-Packard chief executive officer (CEO) Mark Hurd blamed the scandal that has besieged his company on "a rogue investigation" that got out of hand. "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 , forced to resign Sept. 21 because ofÂ the scandal,Â defended in her testimony her decision to investigate the leaks of confidential board discussions to the news media. Both are among several witnesses expected at a hearing 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. 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 that such disclosures made it difficult for the board to deal with important issues candidly, she wrote. "I wish fervently that none of this had ever happened," Dunn wrote in her testimony. "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."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.
208103
The chairman of Hewlett-Packard is stepping down amid controversy over a probe into leaks at the firm.
698403
(InfoWorld) - All's still not well in the higher echelons of Hewlett-PackardÂ as revealed in a filing the company made to the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC). The brouhaha relates to the sudden andÂ unexpected resignationÂ of Silicon Valley venture capitalist Thomas Perkins from HP's board of directors in May. The co-founder of leading IT investment firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, Perkins has strong ties to HP dating back to the 1960s when he ran the company's research department and including a previous stint on HP's board of directors from 2002 to 2004. Back in May, HP provided no reason for Perkins' resignation, but according to an 8-K filing HP made to the SEC Wednesday, he quit over concerns with the HP board's handling of investigations into leaks of confidential information. In the filing, HP confirms that the company has suffered "multiple leaks of confidential HP information," including information relating to the closed-door deliberations of its board, dating back to at least 2005. To try and stem the leaks and identify the culprit, HP turned to an external legal counsel who interviewed the board's directors in early 2005 and got each of them to recommit to their duty of confidentiality. The interviews didn't turn up the party responsible and the leaks continued. So, HP brought in an external specialized investigations firm which revealed that George Keyworth, an HP director since 1986, has been disclosing board deliberations and other confidential information to the media without authorization. Keyworth acknowledged he had leaked information at a board meeting on May 18 and the board asked him to resign. Keyworth refused to do so and at that point Perkins announced his own resignation, citing "personal frustration" with the chairman of the board in how the whole leaks investigation had been handled, the filing said. Perkins didn't like the matter being aired before the entire board and had believed he and HP Nonexecutive Chairman Patricia Dunn would handle the matter privately. On June 19, Perkins sought information from HP about the methods used to conduct the investigations into the leaks. According to the filing, he "asserted that phone and e-mail communications had been improperly recorded as part of the investigation." HP responded that there had been no recording or eavesdropping, but admitted "that some form of 'pretexting' for phone record information, a technique used by investigators to obtain information by disguising their identity, had been used." In pretexting, investigators call a phone company and use personal information to pretend to be someone else so as to gain access to that individual's phone records. After receiving the HP response, Perkins asked HP's nominating and governance committee to carry out an inquiry into whether the techniques used to conduct the investigation were appropriate. The vendor went ahead and engaged outside counsel, not previously involved in the earlier inquiries, to conduct such an investigation. The counsel discovered that a third party retained by the external consulting firm HP brought in to investigate the leaks "had in some cases employed pretexting." Such a practice, at that time, was not generally illegal, the counsel reported, but added that it "could not confirm that the techniques employed by the outside consulting firm and the party retained by that firm complied in all respects with applicable law." As a result, the HP committee recommended that controls relating to investigations be strengthened and that HP management ensure that all aspects of HP's investigations do comply with both applicable laws and HP's code of ethics. HP's board and Chief Executive Officer Mark Hurd have accepted the committee's conclusions. The U.S. Attorney General of the State of California has asked HP to supply information about the processes used in the leak investigation. "HP intends to cooperate fully with that inquiry," the vendor said in the filing. The SEC has also been in touch over the 8-K filing HP made when Perkins resigned, but the vendor has responded that it believes its disclosures back in May were "accurate and complete." In an Aug. 31 meeting, HP's board of directors determined that Keyworth shouldn't be nominated for another term on the board. According to a Wall Street Journal report, former HP Chief Executive Officer Carly Fiorina was deeply angered by the leaks since they revealed a gulf between her position and that of some of the company's board. She was laterÂ ousted from HPÂ in early 2005 and isÂ due to tell her side of the story in a bookÂ titled "Tough Choices" out in October.
471460
(InfoWorld) - Hewlett-Packard board members and journalists were under physical surveillance by investigators trying to find out who was providing information to reporters, and private investigators tried to put tracking software on a journalist's computer to keep tabs on e-mail, according to a New York Times report. Patricia Dunn, HP's chairman, the company's general counsel and a staff attorney oversaw the internalÂ investigation of news leaks, the Times reported, citing anonymous sources who have been briefed on HP's findings so far regarding the secret investigation. It isn't clear how much involvement in the investigation there was by Dunn and others at HP, the Times reported Monday. HP announced last week that Dunn willÂ step aside as chairmanÂ in January, although she will remain as a director. Two others also have resigned from the board in the wake of the scandal. Over the weekend, HP identified Michael Moeller, director of corporate media relations, as one of two HP employees who was targeted in the internal investigation. "Investigators' suspicions were misdirected and unfounded," Robert Sherbin, HP's vice president for external communications was quoted as telling the Times on Sunday. The internal investigation reportedly was conducted in two stages, with the first from January 2005 to August of that year, which came up with nothing to go on, and then a second phase beginning in January 2006 after the technology news site of CNET NetworksÂ posted an article about an HP senior management meeting held that month. The board first clamored for an investigation into leaks of information to journalists in January 2005 following an article in The Wall Street Journal that spoke of board discussions regarding management reorganization and changes in the responsibilities to be handled by Carly Fiorina, who was then chief executive officer and chairman. She was ousted by the board in February 2005. Within days of that board action, The New York Times published a detailed account of a directors' meeting that was crucial to her ouster. Reporters from the Times, the Journal, CNET and Business Week have been informed by the California attorney general's office that HP investigated them. California and federal authorities are investigating HP's conduct and the California attorney general has said that charges are likely. HP has admitted that its the private investigative firm it hired used "pretexting," with investigators pretending to be journalists in order to obtain their personal telephone records. Even after a summary of the internal investigation was presented to leaders at HP, in Palo Alto, California, those in charge were unaware that possibly illegal methods had been used to obtain information, the Times reported. In May, the investigation's findings were relayed to the board of directors, including the allegation that its longest-running member, George Keyworth, was the source of the leaks to journalists. He refused to resign, but Vice Chairman Thomas Perkins, an influential and important Silicon Valley venture capitalist, was incensed over the probe and quit the board. He then turned his attention to pressuring Dunn to resign. His surprising departure was announced in a mildly worded HP statement that offered no clue as to the fractious nature of what had transpired, details of which began to emerge in news accounts earlier this month.
90883
HP board chairwoman agrees to resign    LOS ANGELES, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Hewlett-Packard Co. Chairwoman Patricia Dunn agreed to resign next year in an effort to defuse a widening scandal surrounding the company's use of private investigators to obtain directors' phone records.
386904
HP says it will cooperate with a request from a U.S. House subcommittee questioning  why CEO Mark Hurd sold HP stock just before a boardroom spying scandal broke in September.
588514
(InfoWorld) - Two U.S. Congressmen have asked Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) Chief Executive Officer Mark Hurd to explain why he sold US$1.37 million worth of HP stock just before theÂ company's spying scandal became public. Congressmen John Dingell and Mark Stupak, both Michigan Democrats, sent a letter to Hurd Wednesday requesting an explanation and asking for a response by Dec. 21. "We look forward to responding to the committee's inquiry," said HP spokeswoman Emma Wischhusen. Both congressmen are ranking members of the investigations subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which in September held hearings on the HP pretexting scandal. In his testimony, Hurd apologized for the investigation HP undertook in which private investigators used false pretenses, called pretexting, to gain access to the phone records of people being investigated to trace leaks of board deliberations to the media. In their letter, Dingell and Stupak note that Hurd sold $1.37 million in stock options on Aug. 25, the same day Hurd was briefed by attorneys for Wilson Sonsini, one of HP's outside law firms, about the pretexting investigation and possible legal liability for the company over it. The scandal became public Sept. 6 when HP filed a notice with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission acknowledging that director Thomas Perkins resigned over the way the leak investigation was conducted. "The August 25 transaction does not appear to be part of any prescheduled program," the congressmen wrote in their letter to Hurd. "Please explain the reason for this transaction." Questions about the timing of HP executives' stock trades around the same time are also the subject of aÂ shareholder lawsuit against the technology company. The suit, filed Nov. 29 in Santa Clara County Superior Court in California, accuses Hurd and seven other HP executives of selling a total $41.3 million worth of shares between Aug. 21 and Sept. 6 based on insider information that the pretexting scandal was about to become publicly known. HP issued a statement at the time the lawsuit was filed calling it "baseless." As it is, HP's stock price wasn't adversely affected by the scandal as investors regarded it as unrelated to the company's operations. Â
734171
Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd announced Friday that Chairman Patricia Dunn has resigned from HP's board because of the fallout from the company's probe of leaks to the media. But Hurd also confirmed that he approved a misinformation campaign as part of the probe.
252340
Like a good friend who has just gotten out of a terrible relationship, Hewlett-Packard seemed to be on the rebound and all the happier for it in recent months. After the departure of controversial CEO Carly Fiorina, the company has as of late shown newfound confidence and focus under new CEO Mark Hurd. But allâs still not well in the higher echelons of HP, as revealed in a filing the company made to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.