Tech news from around the web:
Tech news from around the web:
Tech news from around the web:
Tech news from around the web:
HP keeps its latest CEO on a shorter leash
After the mess of Mark Hurd’s departure, it’s good to see that Hewlett-Packard’s board has learnt a few lessons.
Leo Apotheker’s employment contract, on file today with the SEC, reveals that the new CEO has no guaranteed contract term. Instead, he is employed “at will”, which effectively makes it easier for the company to dispense with his services any time it likes.
Perhaps even more important is HP’s stipulation of the circumstances in which it can sack Mr Apotheker “for cause” – another glaring omission from the Hurd contract, and an issue over which HP has been heavily criticised. Read more
HP may have topped Dell in the bidding war for 3Par, but today’s Lex note argues, “HP may trump its rival– but to do so it has put a valuation on 3Par that is, frankly, bonkers.”
Lex writes, “Trouble is, 3Par has not made an operating profit in five years. Fixed assets at the end of last year were worth just $58m. On sales of $235m in the year to March 2011, analysts expect 3Par to generate $21m of earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation. HP intends to pay almost 80 times those profits.” Read more
From John Gapper’s Business Blog
As the ousting of Mark Hurd as chief executive of Hewlett-Packard starts to fade from the headlines, one aspect of it lingers in my mind – the Google search. Read more
Friends like Larry
Given the questions that have arisen over the extent of his ethical lapses – and the fact that he was cleared of the most most serious claim against him, involving sexual harassment – it’s not surprising that Mark Hurd’s supporters are starting to come forward.
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison just unburdened himself of a typically outspoken reaction in an email to The New York Times. It includes this zinger: Read more
The FT’s Lex column writes that while Hewlett Packard’s acquisition of Palm may make a degree of financial sense for both companies, the challenge will be to meaningfully integrate Palm without alienating existing partners.
HP is a long-term partner of Microsoft, and is soon to release the first real competitor to the iPad: a touchscreen slate running Windows 7. In promoting Palm, the two companies will have conflicting priorities for the development and marketing of some new products, while playing nice on the full scale PC side. Read more
Elevation’s big Palm bet comes to nothing
A year ago, Silicon Valley investor Roger McNamee was talking up the potential for Palm’s latest gadgets to put the iPhone in the shade – and getting into hot water with the SEC in the process (which led to this self-parodying video).
So Wednesday’s hurried sale of Palm to HP marks an ignominious retreat – even if Elevation Partners, McNamee’s buy-out firm, at least managed to protect its downside.
All-in, Elevation put $460m into Palm between 2007 and 2009 in what amounted to a big bet that it could corner a piece of the new smartphone market before slow-moving giants like Microsoft and Nokia (not to mention HP) finally got their act together. Read more
| About this blog | Blog guide |
Richard Waters has headed the FT's San Francisco bureau since 2002 and covers Google and Microsoft, among other things. A former New York bureau chief for the FT, he is intrigued by Silicon Valley's unique financial and business culture, and is looking forward to covering his second Tech Bust.
Chris Nuttall has been online and messing around with computers for more than 20 years and since 2004 has reported from the FT's San Francisco bureau on semiconductors, video games, consumer electronics and all things interwebby.
Maija Palmer has been writing about technology for the FT since 1999 and is fascinated by cybercrime, privacy and all the other issues of the information society. Based in London, she covers European tech companies and hopes that they won't all get acquired by American rivals.
Robin Kwong is the FT's technology, media and telecoms page editor in London. Formerly he was the Taipei correspondent and wrote about the companies that manufacture the vast majority of the world's computers and gadgets. He is interested in the intricacies of the technology supply chain and how China is increasingly changing the tech landscape.
Tim Bradshaw is the FT's digital media correspondent, and has just moved from London to join our team in San Francisco. He has covered start-ups such as Twitter and Spotify, as well as the online ambitions of more established media companies, such as the BBC iPlayer. He also covers the advertising, marketing and video-game industries. Tim has been writing about technology, business and finance since 2003.
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