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TEXT-Oracle CEO Ellison's comments on exit of HP's Hurd
LOS ANGELES |
LOS ANGELES Aug 9 (Reuters) - Following is a full text of an email that Oracle (ORCL.O) CEO Larry Ellison sent to the New York Times on Monday, blasting the board of Hewlett-Packard (HPQ.N) for causing the surprise departure of chief Mark Hurd.
The statement was provided by Oracle late on Monday.
"The HP Board just made the worst personnel decision since the idiots on the Apple Board fired Steve Jobs many years ago. That decision nearly destroyed Apple and would have if Steve hadn't come back and saved them. HP had a long list of failed CEOs until they hired Mark who has spent the last five years doing a brilliant job reviving HP to its former greatness.
"In losing Mark Hurd, the HP board failed to act in the best interest of HP's employees, shareholders, customers and partners. The HP board admits that it fully investigated the sexual harassment claims against Mark and found them to be utterly false.
"Nevertheless, the HP board then voted 6 to 4 go public with this sexual harassment claim against Mark because six of the directors believed that "full disclosure was good corporate governance". Publishing known false sexual harassment claims is not good corporate governance; it's cowardly corporate political correctness.
"Those six directors caused HP to lose a nearly irreplaceable CEO. Those six directors who voted against Mark can try hard to hide behind a claim of "good corporate governance" but their decision has already cost HP shareholders over $10 billion... and my guess (is) it's going to cost them a lot more.
"The final insult was when the HP board (was) going to the press and suggested that Mark Hurd engaged in expense fraud over a few thousand dollars. This is not credible. Mark Hurd, like most other CEOs, does not fill out his own expense reports, so even if errors were made Mark didn't make them.
"What the expense fraud claims do reveal is an HP board desperately grasping at straws in trying to publicly explain the unexplainable; how a false sexual harassment claim and some petty expense report errors led to the loss of one of Silicon Valley's best and most respected leaders."
"Since full disclosure seems to be the order of the day, I should disclose that Mark Hurd (is) a close friend and I am deeply offended by what just happened to him. If the HP board is offended by my comments... so be it." Larry Ellison. CEO, Oracle Corporation
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Thank you for the posting. It needed to be said!
Luis
14 years ago I had a meeting at Micron Technology that involved a visit by Steve Appleton. The morning I arrived in Boise, I was greeted with the fact that the board had fired him on stupid grounds. Nine days later they put their tails between their legs and hired Steve back. I would strongly suggest the HP board does the same. And I know a Silicon Valley (and America’s Cup) maven who agrees with me.
We don’t yet know everything about the full extent of the Hurd-Fisher interactions, and there may be something (unsaid) there that explains the board’s drastic action, beyond the unproven harassment claim. But if there isn’t anything more than what we’ve been told . . .
. . . forcing a resignation from a top performer for that level of expense-account sloppiness is bizarre beyond words. Turn in 20 expense reports a year, and at some point every decade, you’ll turn in one that management doesn’t like. The usual cultural norms are that you’re told what you did wrong and are told to resubmit.
By Hurd’s account, it doesn’t sounds as if he was systematically trying to hide his dinners with Ms. Fisher. Sometimes he (or his staff) accounted for them properly; sometimes he didn’t.
HP will now incur at least $50 million in head-hunter costs plus new CEO bonus costs plus severance costs, just so it can be weirdly puritanical about a $20,000 dispute over Hurd’s expenses.
Why?? Reprimand the guy if you want, ask for a repayment with interest, etc. Make him promise never to do it again. Heck, shrink his bonus if it’s really that distressing.
But to rip apart company leadership over a minor-league slipup is lunacy.
I’d be more concerned about the size of APCO’s PR bill — and whether this agency was improperly motivated to deliver drastic advice so it could bill for more hours or otherwise boost its fee. If we’re questioning people’s motives, that’s far more worrisome.
Maybe the HP board should disclose the size of its APCO engagement, who hired APCO, and any possible conflicts there. If HP has entered an age of intense moral scrutiny, let’s make sure that the board isn’t guilty of worse transgressions.
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