Tag Archives: Hewlett Packard

Business/Economics, Idaho, International, Technology, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Hewlett Packard spending millions to save money in Idaho? Announces even more layoffs! Refuses to pay fair share in taxes! Hoping to save itself by making a deal with the devil: Israel!

“Just think of all the value that they have destroyed. It has been a case of just horrible management.”-Brian Marshall, ISI Group

23 September 2012, the past month has been a busy month of announcements from struggling computer maker, Hewlett Packard (HP).

At the end of August, HP reported a quarterly loss of $8.9 billion USD! (Dell computer maker also reported a big loss)  Then at the beginning of September, HP officials announced they will layoff 29,000 employees by 2014, that’s an increase of 2,000 from their layoff announcement in May of this year.

HP blamed the quarterly loss on down sales, and the cost of downsizing the company!

According to an Idaho Statesmen report, HP spent $50 million, over the past few years, downsizing its operations at the huge Boise HP campus.

The report also pointed out that HP is refusing to publish just how many people have lost their jobs at the Boise campus.  The Idaho Statesmen estimates it to be in the hundreds (at least 320).

HP also isn’t mentioning the fact that they’ve spent more than $40 billion on buying up worthless companies!

Just days ago a U.S. Senate investigation revealed that HP is one of thousands of unAmerican Corporations (including Microsoft) that are working hard to avoid paying taxes.

“The bottom line of our investigation is that some multinationals use our current tax system to engage in shams and gimmicks to avoid paying the taxes they owe.”-Carl Levin, Senator from Michigan

The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations discovered that HP avoided paying $4.5 billion in taxes, from 2009 to 2011, by using complicated offshore loan deals  (you see it’s not just Mitt Romney, everyone in unAmerican Corporate America does it).

Of course HP officials deny it: “I can assure the committee that HP takes seriously its obligations to accurately follow accounting principle and to pay taxes that it owes.”-Lester D. Ezrati, HP

HP also has operations in Israel, and today it was announced that HP is in the running for a huge military contract worth half a billion USD!  (IBM, Dell and Lockheed Martin have also bid)

The contract will be for a new huge Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) computer server farm based in the Negev desert.  It will be the main server farm for electronic logistics, communication and military intelligence operations being run by other newly built bases in the Negev.

Business/Economics, Idaho, Technology, U.S.

Corporate Incompetence: Hewlett Packard gets downgraded, Idaho still waiting for official job layoffs announcement

“Major strategic reversals” is one reason why Standard & Poor’s just downgraded Hewlett Packard’s credit rating.

S&P’s also blamed HP’s inconsistent behavior: “We have concerns that HP’s inconsistent growth strategies and high levels of board of director and senior management turnover have elevated the level of operational and execution risk in the near term.”-Martha Toll-Reed, Standard & Poor’s

I’ve written about some of HP’s hypocritical behavior, like laying off hundreds of U.S. employees, buying back millions of dollars worth of their own stocks, then investing billions into their Taiwan operations, and hiring hundreds of employees in Taiwan.

Another dumb move was cancelling production of their TouchPad tablet. Turns out it was the number two selling tablet in the U.S.!

It’s been revealed that HP just spent U.S.$11.7 billion to buy a British software company called Autonomy.  $6 billion of that was in cash!!! Couldn’t HP have used that money to keep U.S. workers employed, or improve their products (they really need to)?

Back at the beginning of November someone at their Boise, Idaho, operation leaked that more layoffs were coming.  Officially HP is working on a press release to explain it. It’s the start of December now, and still no press release.

S&P’s has downgraded HP’s credit rating to BBB+.

Business/Economics, Idaho, International, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Is Hewlett Packard lying about investing in U.S. operations? Spends tens of billions of dollars in Taiwan, hires hundreds of Taiwanese while laying off hundreds of Americans

On November 25, the Taiwan government’s Ministry of Economic Affairs (MEA) recognized U.S. based Hewlett Packard (HP) as the number one foreign buyer of Taiwan made computer related products.

The MEA refused to give an exact dollar amount but said it was at least 10% more than what HP spent in 2010.  In 2010 HP spent U.S.$25 billion on Taiwanese products!

HP officials told the Taiwan media they plan on buying $30 billion worth of Taiwanese made products in the next two years.  On top of that they plan to hire hundreds of Taiwanese for their Taiwan operations.

This greatly contrasts with what Hewlett Packard is doing with it’s U.S. operations.  Slashing and burning operating budgets and laying off hundreds of U.S. employees.

In a recent interview, the new CEO of HP, Meg Whitman, said this: “We’re relatively pessimistic about the economic outlook in two of our three major regions. 2012 just looks tough to me.”

Apparently the United States is one of the two regions she’s pessimistic about, because that’s not what HP officials are saying about their Taiwan operations.  Several Taiwan media sources reported that HP officials feel very “upbeat” about the economic situation in Taiwan, and Asia in general.

In July HP bought back $10 billion of their own stocks, then laid off 500 U.S. employees in September.  At the beginning of November, news of more lay offs was leaked by people claiming to work at HP’s Boise, Idaho, factory.  Idaho media contacted HP and was told that a press release was in the works.  So far no press release.

 

 

 

Business/Economics, Idaho, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Corporate layoffs & stock market games, part of Corporate America’s stock buy back scheme. Hewlett-Packard case in point

“We’re relatively pessimistic about the economic outlook in two of our three major regions. 2012 just looks tough to me.”-Meg Whitman, new CEO of Hewlett-Packard

“It’s an extraordinarily unimaginative way to use money.”-Robert Reich, former U.S. Secretary of Labor

What’s the former U.S. Secretary of Labor talking about? Why Corporate America buying back its own stocks.  Companies are able to do this because they are not spending money on research and development, and, according to a New York Times article, it’s the real reason companies are still laying off employees. They’re using the money they would have paid for the labor to buy back company stocks.

In November employees at the Boise, Idaho, Hewlett-Packard (HP) factory reported that layoffs were in the works.  In July HP bought back U.S.$10 billion of their own stocks, then laid off 500 employees in September.  HP officials avoided directly answering questions about layoffs in Idaho by saying they were working on a “press release”.  It’s been a couple of weeks now and no press release.

A lot of problems are being created by the way Corporate America is buying back their stocks.  For one it artificially increases the value of their stocks:  “Unless earnings per share are adjusted to reflect the buyback, then to base a bonus on raw earnings per share is problematic. It doesn’t purely reflect performance.”-John L. Weinberg, University of Delaware

Number two, it’ll delay any economic recovery: “It’s a symptom of a deeper problem, which is a lack of investment in the long term. If we’re not investing in research, innovation and entrepreneurship, we’re going to be a slow growth country for a decade.”-William W. George, Harvard Business School

And thirdly, it’s increasing unemployment, which is only adding to the downward spiral of the economy.

On November 22, Meg Witman, former eBay CEO, former California Gubernatorial candidate, and new CEO of Hewlett-Packard, was questioned about HP’s huge cuts in R&D.  Here’s her response: “It’s not (return on investment) in year one or two. I think the investments we make in 2012 you’ll start to see in 2014 and 2015. I wish I could tell you differently but it’s not true. And you’re right. We cut out a lot of muscle in R&D at this company and we have to invest back in it. It’s a long term play. I will tell you, this management team, we are now building HP, we’re building it to last. We’re not building it for next month or next quarter. We are building this company to be great over the next decade. And you’ll see improvements every single year. You’ll be able to measure us on how we’re doing. But we’re making some long term bets here because we can’t continue to run this company for the short term.”

Knowing that the latest trend in Corporate America is buying back their own stock, at the expense of R&D and employment, is that what Whitman means when she says “…we’re making some long term bets…”?

Whitman’s answer is confusing.  Traditional economics tells you that investing in R&D is a long term “bet”.  Yet Whitman calls it “short term”. 

So is that what Whitman means when she says we should see returns on investment in 2014/2015?  The investment meaning buying back their own stocks?

Anyone who’s taken economics, or business courses should know that traditional investment into your own company means R&D; to come up with more efficient ways to produce products, or coming up with new products/services, better marketing, etc.  But it does not mean buying back your own stocks.

Perhaps stock buybacks are the real reason there are layoffs coming for HP’s Boise operation, and officials are still trying to come up with a good sounding reason for their forthcoming “press release”?

Hopefully, since Whitman just started her job as HP CEO, she’s talking about a return to traditional economics. Hopefully it’ll mean an end to HP’s stock buy backs and a return to putting money into R&D and employment, she did say: “We cut out a lot of muscle in R&D at this company and we have to invest back in it.” Oh well, wishful thinking.

 

Business/Economics, Idaho, Technology, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Former HP employee, and MBA holder, finds new job by NOT talking about his college education

“Nobody ever thinks, ‘Hey, I’m having trouble getting a job now.  Let me go get this extra degree and I’m sure I’ll still have trouble.’”-Nathan Bussey

In 2008, Idahoan Nathan Bussey lost his coveted job with Hewlett-Packard.  He used the unexpected time off to get an MBA.

Forget the rhetoric coming out of Corporate America, that they can’t find “qualified” applicants, Bussey discovered that having a college degree actually hurt his chances of getting a job.   That’s because the only jobs available don’t really require college.

This year Bussey took a job with a dreaded call center.  He did not tell them about his MBA, because it would’ve hurt his chances for getting hired.  He’s getting paid much less than when he was working for HP, but he and his wife are desperate: “We have no savings anymore. If something happened, if one of us got hurt or sick, we certainly would be in a much worse situation now.  We’ve used our buffer.  That rainy day fund is now gone.”