惠普拋售個人電腦打亂仗

????惠普（Hewlett-Packard）是全球最大的個人電腦制造商。今年8月份，惠普宣布公司計劃拋售個人電腦業務，科技界一片嘩然。公司稱希望專注軟件業務，而實際上到目前為止軟件僅占惠普銷售額的3%。行業分析人士一致驚呼：“什么？！”——不久，惠普董事會也做出了同樣的反應。

????今年9月，惠普董事會將該計劃的設計師、CEO李艾科掃地出門。一個月之后，惠普公司改變了立場，宣布將保留個人電腦業務。

????如果惠普董事會盡職盡責，或許原本能夠避免類似的災難。《紐約時報》近期披露，李艾科獲聘CEO的時候，惠普董事會還有多名董事連他的面都沒見過。

????惠普董事會之所以被認為是美國公司中最糟糕的董事會之一，這也是其中一個原因。正如智治基金（Ironfire Capital）創始人埃里克?杰克遜所說：“這幫家伙純粹是一群小丑，無能程度僅次于雅虎（Yahoo）董事會。”——戴維?古德曼

HP: 'We're dumping PCs. No wait!'

????Hewlett-Packard, the world's largest PC maker, confounded the tech world in August by announcing that it planned to dump its PC business. The company instead wanted to focus on software, which currently accounts for just 3% of HP's sales. Industry analysts reacted with a collective "What!?" -- and, soon after, so did HP's board.

????In September, the board fired CEO Leo Apotheker, the plan's architect. One month later, HP reversed course and announced that it would keep its PC business after all.

????Perhaps the debacle could have been avoided if the board did its homework. It hired Apotheker after only a few of the company's directors even met him, the New York Times recently revealed.

????It's yet another reason why HP's board is widely considered one of the worst in corporate America. As Ironfire Capital founder Eric Jackson put it: "These guys are a bunch of clowns, surpassed in incompetence only by Yahoo's board." -- David Goldman