HP: No word on Dunn - yet Computer maker's board adjourns emergency meeting with no word on chairwoman's fate; to meet Monday. NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Hewlett-Packard's board of directors adjourned an emergency meeting Sunday with no statement on the fate of embattled Chairwoman Patricia Dunn. Some critics have called on Dunn to resign for her role in an internal probe of the company's board that may have used illegal methods to spy on some directors as well as reporters. HP (Charts) said in a one-paragraph statement that the board met for several hours Sunday morning and would reconvene late Monday. It said no further statement will be made before then. The scandal has become the talk of corporate America, from Silicon Valley to Wall Street, but the company's stock has barely budged as the drama has unfolded at HP, one of the nation's biggest and most storied computer makers. Dunn had ordered the investigation of other board members to try to find if any director had leaked confidential information about the company. In the probe, outside investigators used personal information to pose as HP directors and reporters, and got AT&T (Charts) and other phone companies to turn over records of home and mobile phone calls. The Federal Communications Commission has asked AT&T about the Hewlett-Packard leak. (Full story). The scandal has also triggered an investigation by California's attorney general that could result in criminal or civil charges against one or more officials at HP, which is based in Palo Alto, Calif. California Attorney General Bill Lockyer, who is leading the state's investigation, has said he believes a crime was committed but doesn't know who, or if anyone, will be charged. Posing as someone else to obtain confidential information, a practice known as pretexting, is illegal in California. Dunn said late last week that she did not know private investigators hired by the computer maker had used questionable tactics to access the private phone records, according to an HP spokesman. The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that the cloud hanging over Dunn could end up affecting HP CEO Mark Hurd, who has not commented publicly on the scandal. The newspaper said that some corporate ethicists suggested that if Hurd knew the probe used improper methods, he should have killed it before the results reached his board. The paper reported that in an interview Friday, Dunn said Hurd was briefed on the investigation but wasn't involved in it. He learned of the probe's results when they were being completed and "helped determine the best way for the results to be conveyed" to the board, the paper quoted her as saying. The HP probe ended up pointing to longtime board member George Keyworth as the source of the leaks. But Keyworth refused to resign after being confronted with the allegations. The company has said he will not stand for re-election. Thomas Perkins, the Silicon Valley venture capitalist who quit HP's board in May to protest the leak investigation. on Saturday called on Dunn to resign from her post as chairwoman of the computer maker. Meanwhile, on Wall Street, big investors have been taking the developments in stride, at least for now. "It's not the sort of action you would expect from a high-quality firm like HP, which has such a distinguished history," said Gene Sit, chief investment officer of the Sit Science & Technology Growth Fund, which owns the stock. But in the end, it's the company's fundamentals that are going to impact the valuation of the stock price, he told CNNMoney.com last week. California investigating HP fracas |
Sponsors
|