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back to article HP gets 'Playboy model and the ex-CEO' lawsuit kicked out ... again

A lawsuit against HP over alleged violations of an internal ethics code relating to ex-CEO Mark Hurd’s alleged misbehaviour has been dismissed once again after shareholders failed to make their case. The shareholder plaintiffs alleged securities fraud for the second time, claiming that back in 2006 when HP adopted a “Standards …

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  1. Alister

    The shareholders really should know better than to twist the Tigar's tail...

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  2. Reg T.

    That's what happens

    when a Pommie is allowed to sit on the bench in an American courtroom.

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: That's what happens

      er.......you mean some sense prevails?

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  3. Don Jefe

    Is That A Train?

    It's hard for me to have sympathy for HP shareholders. The HP Board has been acting like a mini Tammany Hall since shortly before the run up to the Compaq acquisition.

    They've consistently shown they are wholly unable to separate their personal issues and business issues, and that's bad. An emotionally charged Board is about the worst thing I can think of for a company and HP has somehow created, and fostered the growth, of what is probably the most dysfunctional Board in the tech industry. Even worse, it doesn't matter who is on the Board, they jump into the scrum with 100% commitment to screwing each other and using the company to do it.

    Anybody who has left any money there is either not opposed to risk, or an idiot. This crap has been going on so long there's absolutely no possible way for investors not to see how broken the HP Board is. You're about 15 years too late to start bitching at the HP Board.

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  4. tony2heads

    respect

    The only person who comes out of this with any personal dignity and self respect is Ms Fisher

    Mark comes out as a complete Hurd

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  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Where are these models?

    I don't see any around here.

    Maybe Meg goes to the Vegas show "Thunder Down Under" or something like that.

    Unfortunately there isn't a "Joke Alert" for anonymously posted things, but it does apply here.

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  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Because codes of ethics are for the prols, not our no-account overlords

    No matter that Hurd was probably violating Federal criminal law (Sarbanes-Oxley) when he signed SEC filings attesting to their accuracy and the adequacy of internal financial controls -- controls that Hurd knew for a fact were inadequate because he had successfully compromised them in his filing of fraudulent claims for expenses. His willful exposing of the company to potential damages in a potential sexual harassment lawsuit due to his failure to exercise the kind of self-discipline we normally expect of even teenage boys, is another matter. One wonders if there's some kind of psychological test that executives could be given to detect character flaws like that. Of course, with a few exceptions, not many of HP's board of directors would probably have passed such a test either (Hurd was, after all, elevated to CEO after the infamous Pretexting Scandal set a new low in the annals of power abuse). The world of business leadership is a swamp, due for a good draining. The only question is whether even the very substantial US prison system would have enough space to hold all the new residents that draining would result in.

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    1. Don Jefe
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      Re: Because codes of ethics are for the prols, not our no-account overlords

      I'm so very glad you chose a career in IT and not law.

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    2. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Because codes of ethics are for the prols, not our no-account overlords

      You DO know that Hurd's main expense violation was mis-identifying whom he was having dinner with, saying it was someone other than the woman he was having an affair with? And not specifying her as the recipient of payouts for her services by name? The total amount in question has been characterized as between $1000 and $20,000 at most.

      I don't care how you slice it, that is NOT a material violation of Sarbanes-Oxley. It doesn't affect share price, it doesn't affect material financial controls. Those amounts would have BEEN PAID ANYWAY...as someone working for HP it would not be out of character or against policy for a boss to pick up a team member's dinner when travelling, and it appears that the payments for services where what she was owed as a contractor.

      I don't know about you, but I have dated people that I have worked with. I was not married at the time, so no worries about an affair, but you really don't want word floating around that you may have something working at work...so you take great pains to not confirm it via naming it on expense reports. As far as I can tell, that is about all Hurd did (besides the affair part)...and I just can't find how that affected his governance of the company or the share prices.

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  7. John Savard

    Didn't Read it Carefully

    At first, I thought Mark Hurd was going out with Jodie Foster, which would, of course be further ammunition for HP's defense.

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