HP's Dunn stepping down in January

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 9/12/6 | Benjamin Pimentel

[SmithL]

07:11 PDT -- Embattled Hewlett-Packard Chairwoman Patricia Dunn will give up her post in January, and will be replaced by CEO Mark Hurd, the company said this morning.

The announcement follows two days of board meetings as HP reeled from a corporate spying scandal that has rocked Silicon Valley.

Dunn will remain as director. Another director, Richard Hackborn, who has served on the HP board since 1992, was named lead independent director effective January.

Dunn continued to defended her decision to investigation the leaks of confidential board deliberations to the media.

But she apologized for the use of false identities to obtain phone records, a practice known as "pretexting."

"The recent events that have taken place follow an important investigation that was required after the board sought to resolve persistent disclosure of confidential information from within its ranks," she said in a statement.

"These leaks had the potential to affect not only the stock price of HP but also that of other publicly traded companies. Unfortunately, the investigation, which was conducted with third parties, included certain inappropriate techniques. These went beyond what we understood them to be, and I apologize that they were employed."

Dunn said she was proud of the company's performance over the past year and a half.

She said she looked forward to coming transition, which she suggested may include expanding the current board.

[SmithL]

She's dunn, Jim.

[ClearCase_guy]

First Carly Fiorina, now Patricia Dunn! What a sexist company! They hate women there! [/libspeak]

[scooter2]

Neat headline potential there, "DUNN's DONE".

[SmithL]

Oh yeah. We had some fun with that already: Emergency Saturday Board Meeting at HP. Dvorak Prediction: Dunn is Done.

[Wally_Kalbacken]

It's all over but the cryin' for dunn!

[One_who_hopes_to_know]

If these women can't ride with the big boys ... then they shouldn't saddle up.

[Jack Black]

HP has had more fights visible at the board level than any company I can think of. First the mother-of-all proxy fights involving the son of the legendary founder, now this nightmare. Which included the resignation of Tom Perkins, one of the almost universally admired venture capitalists, and zillionaire.

These girls should have played more team sports as kids so they learned how to get along with other people better. They both suffered from classic "queen bee" syndrome.

I wonder if Perkins will rejoin the board. They should offer him a spot in Jan. If nothing else to admit that he was right and she was wrong.

[oceanview]

"apologized"? where is the investigation of her for possible criminal offenses?

[Revolting cat!]

Is Dunn being replaced by Brooks?

[SmithL]

Singing the Boot-dragging Boogie?

[One_who_hopes_to_know]

"These girls should have played more team sports as kids ..."

I believe they played soccer when they were kids ... however the league did not allow the teams to keep score ... or to refer to any players on the field as "us" or "them".

[SmithL]

FBI, congressional panel open their own HP probes
Board meets again to discuss fate of chairwoman
- Benjamin Pimentel, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 12, 2006

The scandal surrounding Hewlett-Packard Co. escalated Monday when members of Congress and federal law enforcement officials announced they would launch inquiries into the tech giant's practices during a controversial probe of media leaks that began last year.

The new investigations, which join probes by the California attorney general and the Securities and Exchange Commission, came to light as the company's board met for a second straight day to discuss the fate of embattled HP Chairwoman Patricia Dunn.

The company is under heavy scrutiny for how it went about investigating its own board members after confidential information began appearing in the media in late 2005.

HP has admitted that investigators it hired used the method of "pretexting," in which individuals used false identities to obtain the private phone records of media members and directors.

While it remains unclear who authorized the use of these tactics, state Attorney General Bill Lockyer has said the use of pretexting is illegal. . . .