If the INQUIRER is to be believed....
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Apotheker gets $13m from HP as board feared Oracle takeover
FORMER CEO Leo Apotheker will pick up more than $13m for his 11 months at the helm of HP.
Apotheker's 11 month reign was punctuated by the seemingly ridiculous decisions to ditch WebOS and get out of the PC business, and HP's share price is sinking faster than the Titanic. You would assume that with such a considerable list of achievements, when HP's board fired Apotheker he wouldn't have a leg to stand on for compensation, but oh no.
HP's board, which paid out tens of millions to former CEO Mark Hurd after it was found he fiddled his expenses, will now pay over $13m to get rid of Apotheker. That's over $1m a month on top his basic salary, so it's unlikely that Apotheker will feel the effects of the recession anytime soon.
It looks like Apotheker's golden parachute is an advert promoting the benefits of working at HP. Not only will Apotheker get financial rewards in the form of hard currency and shares, HP will also pay for him to relocate back to Europe and cover any losses he might incur in selling his Californian property, up to the tune of $300,000.
The desperation within HP to push Apotheker out seemed to be due to the board's concern that having Apotheker at the helm would continue to lower its share price, eventually making it a takeover target. According to Bloomberg, the company HP feared the most was Oracle, and it's not surprising why.
Not only did ex-CEO Hurd end up as Oracle's president, but the two firms have been in an increasingly bitter and public battle over support for Intel's Itanium chip. Oracle's latest move was to accuse Mike Lynch, CEO of Autonomy - the firm that HP is buying for £7.1bn - of lying over a meeting with Hurd to discuss a sale to Oracle first, with HP in effect becoming Oracle's second choice.
While Apotheker won't be short of a few bob, it's unlikely he will twiddle his thumbs and count this cash for too long. Perhaps he could give advice to Nokia CEO Stephen Elop on how to pack a golden parachute. µ
Tags: Hardware
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The word Apotheker means literally "pharmacist" in German.
Thank you for your time.
Fredi
I'd do it for half that price.
1. Bring back Carly. Buy Dell this time. Maybe Yahoo while we're at it.
2. OpenSource WebOS. I mean, give it away free and truly open. All those android devs getting annoyed that Android isn't as open as it should be might just jump to WebOS. Make WebOS work on everything (even stupid Itanium if necessary).
3. Ditch Itanium. Get out of intel's bed and jump on the ARM wagon a little bit. Everybody's doing it. It's no big deal.
4. From now on, every HP product comes with an HP printer. Ink sold separately.
5. Sue Apple. For something.
I would like to apply to be the next CEO of HP. Even if I only last a month or two it could be quite profitable as they seem to be paying CEO's a severance equal to at least a million per month. Meg should last about 6 months before I get to take over.