The time to buy companies is when they are under economic stress and that is what she did. The industry was going through change and she took advantage of it. She then did the very same thing a private equity firm would do and removed jobs. 30,000 jobs. She claimed those lay offs saved HP in a difficult market. The merger would have brought downsizing of the two companies anyway. She didn't do anything to save HP, it happened because the liquid assets of Compaq provided a better fiscal environment for HP.
...Fiorina's involvement in politics (click here) includes an advisory role for Sen. John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign. She lost a Senate race in California in 2010 to incumbent Barbara Boxer.
But, it is Fiorina's tenure as the head of HP that gets the most attention. While holding the company's top job from 1999-2005, she oversaw a merger between HP and rival company Compaq that cut jobs. HP's board later fired Fiorina in 2005.
A website, CarlyFiorina.org, attacks Fiorina's record at HP, alleging she laid off 30,000 workers. Fiorina said that while "there's nothing worse than laying someone off," many technology companies went by the wayside in that era.
"What people fail to comment on is the fact that we doubled the size of the company ... We went from lagging behind in every product category to leading in every product category. And yes, in fact, we grew jobs here in the U.S. and all over the world," she said. "You can't just leave those facts out. Because they are as vital to the record to the fact that yes, indeed, I had to make some tough calls during some tough times."...
There are continued criticisms about the loss of Compaq from the Industry.
October 26, 2015
By Rob Enderler
Why do some big mergers succeed while others fail? (click here) This seems to be a common question, and some of the research I've read about the Dell-EMC merger tries to connect it to the HP-Compaq merger, which apparently cost Carly Fiorina her job.
I'll close with my product of the week: the Surface Pro 4 -- my current favorite 2-in-1 since Microsoft fixed every problem I had with the Surface 3....
She cut corners until the Board found out she cut corners. There was a lot of concern by the Board the merger would fail. I can see why. When a major merger instruments is circumvented I'd be worried, too.
...The irony was that when I did the post mortem, I found out some interesting things. One was that nobody had done an initial merger plan. That alone would have meant disaster, regardless of the board's position. However, the proxy fight that resulted between Carly Fiorina and Walter Hewlett forced her to commission one of the best merger plans ever seen at the time....
She isn't a good communicator. A CEO (similar circumstance electronic company Steve Jobs). That matters.
...Michael Capellas, who had been a high-level management consultant before taking the CEO Job at Compaq, and he sold the deal. The reason I knew this is I had these big investors as clients, and I typically followed those traveling executives because the investors wanted our opinion of the deal.
Carly later forced Capellas out of the company, and she was fired largely because she sucked at what he did but she refused to let someone like Capellas work for her....
...Fiorina's involvement in politics (click here) includes an advisory role for Sen. John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign. She lost a Senate race in California in 2010 to incumbent Barbara Boxer.
But, it is Fiorina's tenure as the head of HP that gets the most attention. While holding the company's top job from 1999-2005, she oversaw a merger between HP and rival company Compaq that cut jobs. HP's board later fired Fiorina in 2005.
A website, CarlyFiorina.org, attacks Fiorina's record at HP, alleging she laid off 30,000 workers. Fiorina said that while "there's nothing worse than laying someone off," many technology companies went by the wayside in that era.
"What people fail to comment on is the fact that we doubled the size of the company ... We went from lagging behind in every product category to leading in every product category. And yes, in fact, we grew jobs here in the U.S. and all over the world," she said. "You can't just leave those facts out. Because they are as vital to the record to the fact that yes, indeed, I had to make some tough calls during some tough times."...
There are continued criticisms about the loss of Compaq from the Industry.
October 26, 2015
By Rob Enderler
Why do some big mergers succeed while others fail? (click here) This seems to be a common question, and some of the research I've read about the Dell-EMC merger tries to connect it to the HP-Compaq merger, which apparently cost Carly Fiorina her job.
I'll close with my product of the week: the Surface Pro 4 -- my current favorite 2-in-1 since Microsoft fixed every problem I had with the Surface 3....
She cut corners until the Board found out she cut corners. There was a lot of concern by the Board the merger would fail. I can see why. When a major merger instruments is circumvented I'd be worried, too.
...The irony was that when I did the post mortem, I found out some interesting things. One was that nobody had done an initial merger plan. That alone would have meant disaster, regardless of the board's position. However, the proxy fight that resulted between Carly Fiorina and Walter Hewlett forced her to commission one of the best merger plans ever seen at the time....
She isn't a good communicator. A CEO (similar circumstance electronic company Steve Jobs). That matters.
...Michael Capellas, who had been a high-level management consultant before taking the CEO Job at Compaq, and he sold the deal. The reason I knew this is I had these big investors as clients, and I typically followed those traveling executives because the investors wanted our opinion of the deal.
Carly later forced Capellas out of the company, and she was fired largely because she sucked at what he did but she refused to let someone like Capellas work for her....
