Free Republic

Republican Senate hopeful Carly Fiorina touts her business resume, particularly her years as chief executive of Hewlett-Packard, as the reason GOP voters should nominate her to face Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer. But this morning, an heir to one of the company’s founders issued a slashing rebuttal, arguing that Fiorina nearly drove the technology firm into the ground. “I know a little bit about Carly Fiorina, having watched her almost destroy the company my grandfather founded,” wrote Arianna Packard, the granddaughter of David Packard, in a letter posted on www.redstate.com. Fiorina is in a tough three-way GOP race to take on...

Palo Alto, Calif. (AP) -- Hewlett-Packard Co. says it has agreed to buy networking software and equipment maker 3Com Corp. for about $2.7 billion in cash. The 3Com products will be folded into HP's own networking equipment business. . . .

SACRAMENTO — Over the past dozen years, Hewlett-Packard has sold hundreds of millions of dollars worth of printers and other products to Iran through a Middle East distributor, sidestepping a U.S. ban on trade with the country. Now the person who headed HP for much of that time, Carly Fiorina, is ramping up to run for U.S. Senate. And questions are emerging about what Fiorina knew about HP's growing presence in Iran during her six-year tenure at the Silicon Valley firm from 1999 to 2005. With Iran drawing condemnation abroad for its suspected pursuit of nuclear weapons and crackdown on...

Greenpeace USA said Tuesday that it painted a message on the roof of Hewlett-Packard Co.’s head office in Palo Alto and voice-mailed HP employees with messages from William Shatner protesting the use of toxic materials. The group claimed that its members had painted the words "Hazardous Materials" and Greenpeace on the roof using non-toxic childrens' fingerpaint. The message reportedly is spread over about 11,500 square feet. The Washington, D.C.-based group also said it had sent voice messages to HP employees from Shatner, who played Captain James T. Kirk in “Star Trek,” calling on the company to phase out toxic chemicals.

PALO ALTO, Calif.--The following is a statement from Yvonne Hunt, director Social Investment at HP: “HP is very pleased that President Barack Obama has signed the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, a law designed to encourage volunteerism in the United States. The House of Representatives and the Senate should also be congratulated for passing the bill and fostering community service. “The Serve America Act will encourage many Americans to contribute to their communities through service. It provides scholarships to retirees who volunteer; expands the kinds of activities eligible under the AmeriCorps program; and calls for an additional 250,000 participants...

Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO turned top John McCain aide, said she doesn't think Sarah Palin is qualified to run a major corporation. For that matter, Fiorina said, McCain, Obama and Biden aren't capable of that kind of job either. Ex-Hewlett-Packard CEO and McCain adviser Carly Fiorina said Sarah Palin could not run a major company. The Republican presidential candidate has been trying to portray himself as someone who can fix the country's economic woes. But that is a far different task than running a Fortune 500 corporation, Fiorina told MSNBC Tuesday. Democratic candidate Barack Obama's camp immediately circulated...

HP to cut 24,600 jobs worldwide Tuesday, 16 September 2008 07:28 US technology giant Hewlett-Packard has said that it will cut 24,600 jobs worldwide over the next three years as part of its integration with computer services firm Electronic Data Systems. The company employs 4,000 in Ireland in locations in Leixlip, Dublin, Galway and Belfast. World leading computer maker HP bought Texas-based business services outsourcing titan EDS in August as part of a $13.9 billion deal that aimed to create a global powerhouse in computer services to compete against IBM. Advertisement The workforce reduction aims to 'streamline the combined company's...

Self-described Vagina-American Kate Clinton trashed the family of Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin as "insane" today, called religious conservatives "cancerous" and mocked their belief in Jesus Christ in an article posted at Progressive.com (http://www.progressive.org/mag/wxclinton091208.html).Clinton, an out lesbian comic is the emcee of the Out & Equal Workplace Summit 'Outie Awards' dinner being held in Austin, Texas this weekend.The gay and lesbian meeting is sponsored by many top American companies, including Hewlett Packard which is sponsoring the awards dinner.Other sponsors include Freddie Mac, which is being bailed out by the federal government and many other companies that will disappoint many...

Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina may or may not be on Arizona Sen. John McCain's short list for vice president, but she already is taking a crucial role in the Republican presidential hopeful's campaign. In March, Fiorina was picked by the Republican National Committee to chair a group directed to raise money and get out the vote for this year's elections. Shortly after that move was announced, Fiorina was interviewed by Business Week about her role. "My role is to be the primary advocate for John McCain and for the Republican Party," she said. "Certainly there are a lot of...

One day's obituaries reveal the blind spots of the opinion establishment. On the day of the California primary, an all-but-meaningless election with record-low turnout, two famous men died, both in their early 80s. One was Edmund Muskie, former senator, briefly secretary of state, and the candidate wistful Democrats like to imagine might have been their 1972 nominee if not for a dirty trick and tears in the snow. (They forget, conveniently, that McGovernites had engineered the delegate-selection rules.) Muskie's obituary took 82 column inches in The Washington Post, 84 in The New York Times. The other man--eulogized in a mere...

As Intel and AMD near the end of the discovery process in their US antitrust battle, the two companies have begun fighting over whose testimony will make it to the big dance. In a legal filing, AMD has pointed to the employees at some of the technology world's biggest names - HP, Dell, IBM and others - who it thinks will help make its case. Intel has responded in kind, and it's now up to a judge to decide on the strength of the vendors' arguments. Following a dispute over the number of depositions allowed in the case, Special Master...

He walks with a cane and is a bit hard of hearing. Yet Boris Chertok, 95, a former deputy chief designer in the Soviet bureau that put the first Sputnik satellite into orbit 50 years ago, still has strong opinions on the evolution of the country's space program. Chertok says the free-market changes instituted by President Boris Yeltsin after the Soviet Union fell apart were disastrous for Russian science. "We need to restore what we have lost over 15 years of destructive reforms," said Chertok, whose very name was once a state secret. "The market economy is incapable of fulfilling...

Richard Hodges, Professor of World Archaeology at the University of East Anglia, directed the first excavations in 1994... Thirteen years on, the English lords still support the work at Butrint, along with another multi-millionaire, David Packard of the Hewlett Packard computer fortune. Between them about £500,000 is being spent on Butrint every year... At the foot of the acropolis there is a well-preserved Greek temple with Roman additions. And alongside the massive walls of an early Christian church, I could make out the double circle of pillars of a Baptistery in the centre of a perfectly preserved intricate mosaic floor....

Sent my HP laptop into HP for repairs since I had their accidental damage coverage. The problems started soon after. Although I had registered the computer when I bought it and had a copy of the insurance policy on hand, I still had to find the sales receipt of the laptop and the policy before they would process the claim. Rather stupid since they had all the info on file. The policy says 6 day door-to-door service. I was given a return date of 13 days later. The computer never showed up. I had a URL to a status page...

Excerpt - BOSTON, Jan 18, 2007 (AP Worldstream via COMTEX News Network) -- Hewlett-Packard Co. extended its lead over Dell Inc. in the worldwide personal-computer market in the fourth quarter, according to a report by two top technology research firms. The analyses from IDC and Gartner Inc. produced slightly different numbers but the same general results: With overall PC sales unspectacular, HP managed to outgrow the rest of the market and lead the worldwide tally of PC sales for the second quarter in a row. PC sales increased roughly 7.4 percent in the fourth quarter, according to Gartner, while IDC...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Hewlett-Packard Co. supplanted Dell Inc. as the world leader in personal computer shipments during the third quarter, returning the bragging rights to Silicon Valley for the first time in nearly three years, according to figures released Wednesday by two influential research firms. Both Gartner Inc. and IDC pegged the overall third-quarter growth of the global PC market at just under 7 percent, but that trend was overshadowed by the industry's new pecking order. The changing of the guard occurred after HP's shipments climbed by 15 percent from a year ago while Dell's edged up by...

The California AG has charged Dunn with four felony counts, but her lawyer claims they've got the wrong person for the wrong reason California Attorney General Bill Lockyer has charged former Hewlett-Packard () Chairwoman Patricia Dunn and others involved in the company's spying scandal with four felony counts, including wire fraud and conspiracy. "One of our state's most venerable corporate institutions lost its way," said Lockyer at a press conference on Oct. 4 announcing the charges in the month-old scandal. The indictments give Chief Executive Officer Mark Hurd and the company reason to breathe easier, even as they await word...

SAN FRANCISCO - California’s attorney general announced indictments Wednesday against Hewlett-Packard’s ousted chairwoman Patricia Dunn and former ethics lawyer Kevin Hunsaker for their roles in a snowballing boardroom espionage scandal. “In this misguided effort, people inside and outside HP violated privacy rights and broke state law. Those who cross the legal line must be held accountable,” Attorney General Bill Lockyer told reporters. Three private detectives involved in the US computer equipment giant’s alleged spying operations were also indicted, Lockyer said. Dunn and Hunsaker were indicted along with Ronald DeLia, Matthew Depante and Bryan Wagner, Lockyer said at a press conference...

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - A California court issued arrest warrants Wednesday for former Hewlett-Packard Co. Chairwoman Patricia Dunn, former senior counsel Kevin Hunsaker and three private investigators tied to the technology giant's pretexting scandal after they were charged with felonies in connection with the H-P boardroom leak scandal. The five are charged with fraudulent wire communications, wrongful use of computer data, identity theft and conspiracy. ~ snip ~

SAN JOSE California's attorney general will seek criminal indictments Wednesday against former Hewlett-Packard Co. Chairwoman Patricia Dunn and four others involved in the corporate spying scandal, according to news reports. Citing people familiar with the case, The New York Times and BusinessWeek reported that Dunn, Kevin Hunsaker, HP's ousted chief ethics officer, and Ronald DeLia, a Boston-area private investigator, would each face criminal charges. Two other outside investigators Joseph DePante of Melbourne, Fla. and Bryan Wagner of Littleton, Colo. were also being charged, the Times said. They each will face four felony charges: use of false or fraudulent pretenses to...