Hurd Allegedly Leaked H-P Plans

In what The Wall Street Journal calls “one of the oddest episodes in the annals of Silicon Valley,” Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd was forced to resign after violating H-P’s standards of business conduct. His firing was due to expense account irregularities following allegations of sexual harassment from an H-P contractor, Jodie Fisher. However, an investigation by the Journal has revealed that in early 2008, Hurd allegedly informed Fisher of H-P’s confidential plan to buy Electronic Data Systems Corp.; H-P later unveiled the $13.9 billion acquisition in May. The board also decided to oust Hurd because they felt he was being dishonest about his relationship with Fisher. According to the Journal, the CEO told the board he didn’t know Fisher acted in adult movies, but H-P’s investigation discovered Hurd had visited Web pages showing her in pornographic scenes. Also, Hurd initially said he didn’t know Fisher well, later admitting to H-P investigators that the two had a “very close personal relationship.”