What Will Apotheker Walk Away With if He’s Fired?

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So the news about HP hiring eBay's former CEO will supposedly be announced any time now, which brings us to the company's current CEO. How much will this guy get for his short stint as HP's CEO? Get this, they are saying between $28M - $33M. :eek:

Potentially, he could walk away with a lot. His contract, on file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, grants him a series of cash payments, company shares and other things, some of which he’ll keep, some of which he won’t.

*UPDATE* It's official now.
 
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Honestly they should have invoked some kind of incompetence clause.
 
I wish I could walk in, fuck up, and get paid millions.
 
Honestly they should have invoked some kind of incompetence clause.

If his compensation were commensurate with his work, largely depending on good company performance with a reasonable salary, it would be moot. Back to reality...

Did he have legal or ethical failings, or was he just making poor business plans?

Why should the board be protected from its negligence? No-failure capitalism? And apparently 8 board members didn't even meet him but approved him anyway.

At least this is all up for discussion while he's (outoging) CEO, it wasn't obfuscated like a ticking time-bomb of future pain and toxic assets/debt.
 
I wish I could walk in, fuck up, and get paid millions.

Work for KBR or Xe?

Imagine if he got paid well with HP success, and little if they're struggling (double or nothing! yeehaw!), all in a few years so things are clear. He might have to fly commercial or vacation in the U.S.!
 
From the article.

" $8.6 million: signing ($4 million) and relocation ($4.6 million) bonus.
$3.6 million earned for one year of service (base $1.2 million + $2.4 million minimum bonus minimum according to contract).
156,000 shares of HP works out to about $3.8 million based on today’s price. Remember that all stock grants vest upon termination.
$4.8 million severance payment: 2x the base salary plus minimum 2x bonus. This would be paid over 18 months and would stop if he gets a job with a competitor.
728,000 PRUs: This one is flexible, and is based on performance of the company, but automatically assuming cash flow has been achieved. Since PRUs are used as incentive for all HP management, Apotheker’s estimated achievement will be the same as for everyone else. Even at 50 percent, this would be worth about $9 million (364,000 shares), and at 75 percent it would be worth $13.5 million.

The range works out to be in the neighborhood of $28 million to $33 million."

Wow thats a great pay day for a fuck up.
 
This is why you threaten people with scythes. Oh you want a payout for being someone who fucks things up? See this scythe...it's brand new...
 
No, that's why you negotiate contracts that don't pay for poor performance and early termination.

They could've promoted someone from within.
 
I am sooo glad I sold my shares in my HP 401k 4 months ago...
 
only 30m? i honestly was expecting like 50m and up to 100m. I wonder when businesses will realize that CEO's pay needs to be a tad bit more realistic....
 
They haven't had a good leader since old man Packard retired. Had the chance to meet him when I was college. He wasn't all about the money... he was about designing and building cool shit that worked, and worked well.
 
Now the question is can the new CEO actually reverse the damage or is HPs situation terminal?
 
They haven't had a good leader since old man Packard retired. Had the chance to meet him when I was college. He wasn't all about the money... he was about designing and building cool shit that worked, and worked well.

A great quote from Dave Packard:
"I think many people assume, wrongly, that a company exists simply to make money. While this is an important result of a company's existence, we have to go deeper and find the real reasons for our being."

He also cared a lot for the employees and their families. Wish I had worked there under his leadership.
 
I guess its better to pay him now, before he completely ruins the company. Than to wait till after he ruins it and still have to pay him.
 
HP can't make a good CEO decision to save its life.

Carly Fiorina. Ouch, ouch, and ouch. She dragged the company into the black hole.

Mark "follow the" Hurd.

Apotheker --Under his tenure, HP killed WebOS because they were more concerned with quick profits than with polishing a product into a real success.

Meg Whitman --who, under her career, turned eBay from a great company into one that cares very little about its buyers or sellers, and alienated tons of people over to Craigslist through triple-dipping fees, PayPal fiascos, and tyrannical behavior typical of a monopoly.

During all of these years, HP has managed to run Compaq halfway into the ground without improving HP as a company. HP has managed to run EDS halfway into the ground without improving its on quality of service. HP (at least, under Apotheker) was looking to get rid of its PC business, a portion of which has been run halfway into the ground (the home division, specifically) over the past decade through declining product quality, poor designs, and mediocre-at-best customer service.

Based on Meg Whitman's performance in her latter days at Ebay, I see this as potentially another Carly Fiorina situation --and the first time was disaster enough, IMHO. Bill Hewlett, David Packard, I'm genuinely sorry for what your company has become, because under your tenure, it rocked. I hope they padded your graves well, because I'm sure all that spinning has created a lot of friction.
 
And they say women are better leaders, because they're softer and understand people better than men.

Seems to me that they're a lot less compassionate. All women I know in leadership positions are just plain ruthless.
 
A great quote from Dave Packard:
"I think many people assume, wrongly, that a company exists simply to make money. While this is an important result of a company's existence, we have to go deeper and find the real reasons for our being."

He also cared a lot for the employees and their families. Wish I had worked there under his leadership.

He did care. My dad worked for HP since 1978 till 2005 when he died. The best years were before dave retired in 93 I believe.
 
A great quote from Dave Packard:
"I think many people assume, wrongly, that a company exists simply to make money. While this is an important result of a company's existence, we have to go deeper and find the real reasons for our being."

He also cared a lot for the employees and their families. Wish I had worked there under his leadership.

How quaint. Did he employ Americans here and offer pensions?
 
I meant to say "which is after Dave Packard left." I think he left in the 90s.
 
This is why they pay CEOs the big bucks. Look what grabbing bargain-bin Apotheker has done to HP's business.
 
CEO pay is ridiculous.

It can only be explained by extreme nepotism in corporate boards.

(Hey, I'll vote for your ridiculously high salary on the board I sit on, if you vote for my ridiculously high salary on the board you sit one)

I am fully convinced that no one in the world ads that much value to their organization.

There is no way it is in the shareholders interest to pay that much money to any one executive, CEO or not.

A reasonable salary for a corporate CEO like that, would be on the order of $500k a year including all perks, stocks and performance bonuses.
 
Honestly they should have invoked some kind of incompetence clause.

They still might, if he was incompetent he gets 28 million, if he is determined to have been fired 'without good cause' he gets 33 million. That's why there is the range in what he might end up getting. Keep in mind he put more than 1 day and less than 1 year of his life into killing off everything HP did before he came along and firing a bunch of people, so doesn't he deserve 33 million for that? (Sad thing is that's how some people really feel about it, and they'd fight tooth and nail to make sure he pays a lower tax percentage than you on that 33 million because to do otherwise would make it hard to attract 'talent' like his, and then we'd have less 'job creators' like him.)
 
So wait, where are all the people from the last CEO pay thread saying they deserve every damn penny for all the jobs they create?! :rolleyes:
 
And they say women are better leaders, because they're softer and understand people better than men.

Seems to me that they're a lot less compassionate. All women I know in leadership positions are just plain ruthless.

I know a few women in VP and higher up positions and I believe the reason for this is most senior positions are still very male dominated.

So when a woman makes these ranks she always has to prove herself and run a tight ship, because the first sign of a fuck up they will say its because she is a woman.

They have to be ruthless to just get to that level!

I think a good leader is one that understand his staff and know how to get the best work out of them while making them feel like an active part of the company with value, doesn't really matter if its a man or a woman. The problem is when you have shareholders!

If I ever had the chance I would never run a publicly traded company no thanks.
 
I hope Obama's tax the s&*t out of the rich actually goes through, this guy deserves it, wish I could be a village idiot at the reigns of one of the largest companies in the world, and walk away with a truck load of money...Maybe it's just me, but I just can't see how people get rewarded for putting companies into deeper holes.
 
I hope Obama's tax the s&*t out of the rich actually goes through, this guy deserves it, wish I could be a village idiot at the reigns of one of the largest companies in the world, and walk away with a truck load of money...Maybe it's just me, but I just can't see how people get rewarded for putting companies into deeper holes.[/QUOTE]

Because you're in the reality-based community.

The true Paragons, the stars of the Great Man/Person Theory in high finance or the politics, members of the Church of Wealth, won't let little things like facts, laws, or results get in the way of making the big bucks. They make their own "reality" and leave Joe Smith to react and clean up.

Government contractors commit fraud or just waste money? The punishment is MORE contracts.
 
Because you're in the reality-based community.

The true Paragons, the stars of the Great Man/Person Theory in high finance or the politics, members of the Church of Wealth, won't let little things like facts, laws, or results get in the way of making the big bucks. They make their own "reality" and leave Joe Smith to react and clean up.

Government contractors commit fraud or just waste money? The punishment is MORE contracts.

True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society
Farhad Manjoo (2008)
 
just an observation

1. iPad released in April 2010. 1.5 years later, Microsoft talks about Windows 8 and tablet roadmap projection openly and officially.

2. HP was originally on HP Slate, then decided it is not enough to address a very specific consumer market, so have to perform emergency maneuver, with WeOS integration.

3. HP's initial response is now finally recognized as semi-valid corporate assessment. Observe on new-egg today how many "Oak-Trail x86 tablets" available on newegg website? and the total shipment quantity? and the price point ? How do these compete with Apple iPad 2 and various Android tablets?

3.5 Why do you think there's a lot of patent/business movement with Google/Android in mind?

4. In summary, with point-1-2-3-3.5 as evidence, HP recognizes early, that is"after HP reorg itself in HP-Intel-Microsoft x86 alliance", that both Intel and MS have lag-time in coming with a fast response per iPad. HP is unfortunately very accurate in its assessment.

5. HP, as insurance, needs a resolution. However, because HP has positioned itself as hardware-infrastructure/solution-front on the HP-Intel-MS alliance, it relegate majority of software development to MS many many years ago. To request a sudden directional change on this scale in addressing iPad is not easy. Even MS (a largely software dedicated outfit) takes 1.5 years to finally get things in clear motion per meeting Android/iOS challenge.

It seems HP is fairly reasonable in its assessment of early situation, but that resolution takes more than assessment, it is not an easy task...
 
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