HP story keeps getting worse

Todd, right on. Paraphrasing what Scoble said:

It pisses me off when rich people in power think they can abuse laws, ethics, and whatnot to get their way.

And, it’s a principle I think it’s worth fighting for. If the Bush Administration were allowed to get away with this then other politicians will try it too and so on. I see a total slippery slope here.

Not to go down a rathole or anything ;-D

Gene: it’s pretty clear this board is tainted. There’s no one refuting that at this point. So, if I were in charge of HP I would be calling for a special meeting of the shareholders.

As for not making public statements, that’s wrong. HP already made public statements today distancing themselves from this board. They need to go the full distance and get rid of this board totally and find a replacement board.

I certainly wouldn’t get into the pedantics of how you “cut them loose.”

LayZ: if you ever see me take credit for something like this I’ll certainly deserve major scorn.

Met: the rootkit was slimy, but it wasn’t like this. This goes WAY over the top.

Gene and Todd: I am with you, believe me. But I care about the technology industry, and that’s what I’ll focus on here.

I suspect the market will have the final say. What damage does this do to HP’s brand? Can the board lead?

Long-term damage is done. Spying on journalists. That’s bad.

J&J is remembered in PR lore for its Tylenol scare handling. It’s helped them be a most admired contender for a long time.

HP will be remembered for this in the same way, only negatively. This is the corporate equivalent of Watergate.

Mr. Market is much bigger that Ms. Dunn, or any Chairman or CEO for that matter.

Investors will be nervous about one thing in all of this, and its not the board.

It’s the mysterious “internal group” that HP said knew about the investigation.

Who is in that group? That’s the BIG question. Was CEO Hurd in the loop?

If so, you’d be really worried if you held shares, especially as criminal charges are likely, either for illegally gaining access to records or providing SSNs to outsiders.

Hedgies must be all over this trying to find out who is on the internal spy squad.

@27. Yea, Scoble, you’re right. I probably mispoke. The more accurate quesiton would be:

What are the odds that Scoble will attibute the resignation of Dunn to pressue from the “blogosphere”? Saying something like “it wasn’t until I and other bloggers picked up this story that HP saw the mess they were in”

LayZ: the big guns are blowing holes in HP too so I can’t take credit for that either. Sorry to blow your “Scoble is an arrogant bahstard who’ll take credit for everything” theories.

This comment isn’t about HP – it’s about how you read “tomorrow’s news tonight”.

Care to share your recommendations for news organizations that are accurate (timeliness is good but accuracy counts for more in my book)?