Hurd out at HP, Oracle Goes After Android

The reign of Hewlett-Packard's former CEO Mark Hurd was bookended by scandal -- only where the first one, in which the HP board was caught spying on journalists and others, allowed Hurd to consolidate power and nab the chairman's job, the second has sent him packing. Meanwhile, Oracle has sued Google, claiming that the Android mobile OS infringes on patents it acquired from Sun Microsystems.

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1. Actress in HP scandal sorry Hurd lost his job: The actress who brought sexual harassment charges against former Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd said she was surprised that the allegations cost him his job. Jodie Fisher, an actress and reality television contestant, released a statement on Sunday in which she came out as the person who brought the claims against Hurd. Fisher worked for HP as a contractor and attended executive summits and major client meetings. Late last Friday HP announced that Hurd had resigned from the company, saying that he did not violate HP's sexual harassment policy but did violate its standards of business conduct. Hurd filed inaccurate expense reports to conceal his personal, nonsexual relationship with Fisher and paid her for work she did not perform, according to statements from HP.

2. Google, Verizon make net neutrality proposal: Last week's rumors of network neutrality talks between Google and Verizon turned out to be true. But contrary to media reports, neither company wants to create a business arrangement. Instead, Google and Verizon on Monday released a proposal that would allow the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to enforce some network neutrality rules. The proposal would bar ISPs (Internet service providers) from blocking or slowing Internet traffic and allow the FCC to fine offenders up to US$2 million. Network neutrality fans knocked the proposal, saying the measure does nothing to keep the Web open and is ineffective since it does not cover wireless broadband.

3. Oracle sues Google over Java use in Android: Google's Android mobile-phone OS infringes on Oracle's Java software patents, according to a lawsuit that Oracle filed against the search company. Oracle's lawsuit claims that Google knowingly infringed its Java technology, which Oracle acquired when it bought Sun. An analyst said that Google developed Android without using Sun technology and that the success of Android phones served as a catalyst for the lawsuit.

4. Microsoft's 30-day forecast: Stormy exploits expected: IT administrators may want to rethink summer holiday plans after Microsoft issued its monthly security update on Tuesday. Of the 32 flaws that Microsoft rated on how likely they are to be exploited, 18 of them were labeled as very likely to be exploited. Popular Microsoft products like Office 2007, Internet Explorer, Silverlight and Windows all received patches.

5. Skype files IPO registration with SEC: Internet telephony company Skype looks to raise $100 million through an initial public offering, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The company, formerly part of online retailer eBay after an acquisition, will use the funds for "general business purposes" and to grow its user base.

6. New Android malware texts premium-rate numbers: Kaspersky Lab researchers discovered the first malware program that targets the Android mobile OS. The application presents itself as a media player but sends text messages to the number of the hacker who created the software. However, Android phone owners outside of Russia don't need to fret over their phones' security just yet. The application isn't available in the Android Market, and so far the program has only appeared on phones sold in Russia and on mobile networks in that country.

7. Dell's Streak tablet to go on sale Aug. 12: Dell's Streak, a device that the company describes as a tablet PC but has smartphone features, will be available to U.S. consumers on Friday. The device is already available in the U.K. Dell says the device's 5-inch screen will offer better multimedia experiences than smartphones with smaller screens.

8. Twitter launches the Tweet Button: Twitter launched the Tweet Button, which aims to ease the process of posting Web links to the social media site. By installing the button on their sites, Web publishers will allow users to share URLs without leaving the page or switching browser tabs. Clicking the Tweet Button launches a pop-up window that allows users to access their Twitter accounts, presents a shortened URL and permits people to post the information to their accounts.

9. AT&T, Verizon cashing in outside of phones: Data services are contributing more to the bottom line of U.S. mobile carriers thanks to the rash of e-readers, tablet PCs and other consumer electronics devices on the market. In the second quarter U.S. mobile penetration exceeded 100 percent, according to an industry consultant. The increase of iPads, Kindles and other non-phone devices connecting to data networks helped U.S. mobile operators earn 31 percent of their second-quarter revenue from mobile data services.

10. Oracle provides Sparc road map, but questions remain: Oracle this week also discussed plans for another piece of technology it acquired from Sun. Oracle described the five-year plan for updating the processors in its Sparc-based server line. Oracle offered details on the servers to counter customer concerns that it was abandoning their development. Oracle also has plans for Sun's Solaris OS and will ship Solaris 11, the software's next major update, in 2011. However, questions remain over the fate of both lines of Sparc processors since only plans for the overall chip family were discussed.

Q&A: HP's Parrattino Talks Hardware Refresh, Pricing Pressure

Is the so-called hardware refresh of 2010 real or imaginary? According to HP, it’s very real—and very lucrative for partners.

Last month at D&H Distributing’s Mid-Atlantic Technology Show, CRN Senior Editor Rob Wright sat down with Mike Parrottino, Vice President of HP’s Personal Systems Group, Solutions Partner Organization, to discuss his company’s PC sales for the first half of 2010 as well as HP’s effort to increase channel resources and personnel in the field. The results for the Personal Systems Group have been impressive so far: For HP’s second quarter, ended April 30, unit shipments jumped 20 percent year-over-year while revenue increased 21 percent, led by surprisingly high growth in the desktop category with 25 percent revenue growth.

With third-quarter earnings just around the corner, can HP keep it up? Parrottino outlines why he thinks PSG’s business will continue to grow, despite intense pricing pressure and competition from the likes of Acer. He also discusses tablet PCs, cloud computing and the product category within PSG that’s really turning heads.

There was a lot of talk six months ago about the potential hardware/PC refresh in 2010. How has the Personal Systems Group fared this year so far?

The first and biggest thing is that we are and have been working on growing our product categories, not just within PSG but throughout Hewlett-Packard. We have a great opportunity with our channel partners with workstations, desktops and notebooks, and we’re getting aggressive with our specialty product categories like retail point-of-sale systems and digital signage. It’s really about bringing together the entire technology portfolio for the client solutions set. And I’ll tell you, I think we have the best product lineup we’ve ever had.

Hurd's double faults leave him out at HP

HP CEO Mark Hurd liked to explain conceptual matters on large sheets of paper. There isn't one big enough to explain his actions over the past two years, which led to his abrupt departure Friday.

(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)

Mark Hurd shone at Hewlett-Packard because of his reputation as a detail-oriented executive who shunned the spotlight and got results. On Friday, the tech industry learned about a different side of Mark Hurd.

HP's announcement that Hurd had been dismissed following an investigation into allegations of sexual harassment that turned up improper relationships and falsified expense reports stunned Silicon Valley, where Hurd was brought from the hinterlands of Ohio in 2005 to restore luster to one of America's most storied technology companies. The former Baylor University tennis star is widely credited with turning around HP's fortunes, bringing discipline, order, and a low-key work ethic to HP following several painful years and turning it into the largest technology company measured by revenue and a business-school case study.

But while Hurd survived his first scandal at HP's helm--the 2006 pretexting affair that took down then-chairman Patricia Dunn and elevated him to the chairman's position--there was apparently no way out of this one. HP general counsel Mike Holston said Hurd displayed a "systematic pattern" of inaccurate expense reports during a conference call with reporters, and an internal e-mail to HP employees said Hurd had "misused company assets" while involved in a two-year "close personal relationship" with a female marketing consultant working on his behalf.

Gloria Allred, the famous Los Angeles lawyer known for high profile cases and who is representing the woman involved with Hurd, declined to identify her but said in a statement "we want to make clear there was no affair and no intimate sexual relationship between our client and Mr. Hurd." Allred declined to comment further or hint at whether she was planning any litigation on behalf of her client against Hurd or HP, throwing the nature of Hurd's "close personal relationship" with the woman into question.

An informal survey of business executives would likely turn up a pretty large number who have padded their expense reports from time to time, and the amounts involved were not material to the company, HP said, although it refused to disclose the dollar figures. However, Hurd never disclosed the relationship to HP's board, which it called a "conflict of interest," and may have provided the contractor with payment for services that were never provided.

It's a shocking end to a career at HP that most tech industry watchers would have put in the top five or ten CEO performances over the last several years. Acting CEO Cathie Lesjak bent over backwards Friday to assure reporters and financial analysts that Hurd's departure is in no way related to the company's performance: HP actually raised guidance for the quarter while making the announcement of Hurd's departure.

Hurd spent 25 years at NCR, a historic if dowdy point-of-sale and ATM company previously based in Ohio, but now located in Georgia. He rose through the ranks there to become CEO in 2003, but was lured west by the search for a replacement for Carly Fiorina, who also left HP under less-than-pleasant circumstances.

Hurd was the top choice of a committee led by Dunn and board member Tom Perkins, wooed by his ability to understand HP's strengths and weaknesses like an insider and his ability to outline "a plan to fix things quickly and efficiently, according to Anthony Bianco's recent book at the HP pretexting scandal, The Big Lie.

However, while few would have envisioned back in 2005 that any CEO could have left HP more unceremoniously than Fiorina, Hurd has certainly set a new bar. Nonetheless, he'll receive a severance package valued at $12.2 million and will be able to exercise his vested stock options and restricted stock units under an agreement with HP signed and dated Friday.

It's hard to understate the reverence that was attached to Hurd's tenure as CEO within the financial and technology circles, although he kept a relatively low profile. Hurd was willing to bet big on HP, acquiring large companies such as EDS and 3Com as well as smaller ones like Palm to build HP into a technology giant almost without equal. No company has the same amount of breadth and depth across enterprise hardware, software, and services matched with the world's largest PC company and a legendary research arm.

Until it was yanked Friday afternoon, Hurd's biography on HP's Web site (courtesy of Google's cache) pointed to a 2009 Fortune article called "Mark Hurd's Moment," which described the CEO thusly:

It's simplistic to think of Hurd as a cost-cutter, but he's an unrepentant left-brainer. He personally manages a spreadsheet that tracks and analyzes his daily tasks. That kind of obsessiveness makes him an ideal CEO for these tough times. His ability to draw out and encourage his company's right-brain tendencies, though, will determine if if Hurd is a CEO for the ages.

However, employees were reportedly less enthused. A recent Forbes article noted that HP's employees ranked lower than their tech industry counterparts on job-satisfaction rankings maintained by Glassdoor.com.

"Common complaints concern overwork, favoritism and managers looking over their shoulders in fear of not meeting Hurd's inexorable goals," the article stated. "'A sweatshop,' says one low-level manager who recently departed. 'No one wants to quit now, but watch them go when the economy recovers.'"

"Although he's something of an operational nerd, he's political," said Bianco, who argued in his book that Hurd deserved more blame for the 2006 HP scandal and essentially threw Dunn under the bus to save his own career and reputation. "He plays people and he's good at it."

A lthough Americans do like their second acts, it's hard to imagine Hurd's career recovering from such a scandal, HP, which appeared to have finally shed the aftereffects of a decade characterized by the painful Compaq merger fight, board dysfunction over Fiorina, and uncomfortable month in the spotlight during September 2006, is now in for another protacted year of uncertainty and doubt as it searches for a new CEO.

And HP employees of a certain age--assuming there are any left following several rounds of Hurd-ordered layoffs--are likely shaking their heads Friday evening at the fine mess that Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard's beloved company finds itself in once again.