Comments on: Babs vs. Carly

By: allen pross

allen pross — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:00:22 +0000

Now that Tom Campbell has entered the GOP primary we cannot assume that Carly will automatically secure the nomination. Remember a gentleman by the name of Al Checchi—very wealthy and successful with a spotty voting history also—who lost decisively to Gray Davis for governor?

Tom is liberal on social issues and conservative on economic ones. A dangerous combination should he emerge victorious. He could be the next Senator Brown from the great state of California and send Babs a’packin.

By: melinda maginn

melinda maginn — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 23:12:38 +0000

Carly’s office headquarters at HP was called…The Armani Palace. While there may have been a good fight in Carly, she didn’t appear to be able to gather up much support. Not sure this will serve her well in the campaign. Another business person who turns to politics with a very spotty voting record….impressive?

By: TomL

TomL — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 23:00:27 +0000

The HP-Compaq merger was poorly executed under Carly’s reign. HP paid a 15% premium to Compaq shareholders to go along, but diluted HP shareholders ownership by 1/3 in the combined firm. When all was said and done, the combined company lost 30% of its market capitalization by the time Carly was fired by the HP Board, and walked away with her $21 million golden parachute.

To add insult to injury, HP fired thousands of both HP and Compaq employees to make the numbers work: that’s biz-school speak for “synergy.”

Look up Ram Kumar, the influential analyst at ISS (Institutional Shareholder Services), who wrote a crucial report in favor of the HP-Compaq merger in 2002. His report was critical to sway large institutional shareholders into approving the merger. ISS fired him after it discovered that he didn’t earn the law degree from USC that he claimed. Unfortunately, his deception was not discovered until well after the HP-Compaq proxy fight.

Also, read the critical articles written by Robert Parish, an investment adviser based in Portland, OR. He wrote several pieces on the undisclosed conflict of interest between ISS & Warburg-Pincus, a key adviser to HP.

One other factoid: in 2001 while at HP, Carly tried to buy Price Waterhouse Coopers for $18 billion, but canceled the offer when HP figured out it could not support the large-scale compensation structure for PWC consultants, vs. HP’s internal services organization. One year later, in Oct 2002, IBM scooped up PWC for $3.9 billion.

Clearly, Carly Fiorina’s failures at HP do not qualify her to be a United States Senator. Perhaps she has other qualifications, but I can’t seem to find them.

By: sharon guy

sharon guy — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 19:16:03 +0000

A donnybrook? I don’t see it. Who would support someone (Carly) who can run for office just because she is rich but never saw the need to vote and be an active participant in the democratic process? Barbara will make mincemeat out of her because of her voting record, and she deserves it.

In my opinion, someone who doesn’t vote doesn’t have the credentials to represent us. Carly is an insult to those of us who care enough to go to the polls…regardless of how powerful or busy we are.