Former Intel Corp. CEO Craig Barrett on Friday defended the decision by GOP Senate candidate Carly Fiorina to lay off thousands of workers and ship jobs overseas as a necessary business move when she was head of Hewlett-Packard Co.
Barrett, who served at Intel the same time Fiorina led HP, told reporters Friday that the bursting of the dot-com bubble forced high-tech businesses to streamline and restructure to remain competitive.
At the time, he said sales orders fell 30 percent, lower-level assembly jobs were migrating to Asia, and Fiorina was in the midst of engineering a merger with Compaq Computer Corp.
“When you add those three things up, her actions to move jobs offshore or in fact to lay off people, were absolutely required to keep Hewlett-Packard in business,” Barrett said. “And she really, I think, had no choice. She had to have this stiff back and to take those actions to preserve the enterprise.”
Barrett said Friday it was Fiorina who laid the path for HP’s success.
“I think history will show or is showing Carly made the right decisions while she was there,” he said. “She kept HP at the leadership of the printer business, fully expanded their capability in the computer and server and enterprise side of their business, absolutely positioning HP for what it is today.”
http://www.seattletimes.com/business/former-intel-ceo-defends-fiorinas-layoffs-at-hp/
Thank you for that!
Sorry. She destroyed Hewlett Packard. I could never, with a good conscience, vote for her.
Thank you!