The Ignorant Investor

SAN FRANCISCO/AP - Hewlett-Packard Co.'s board adjourned an emergency phone conference Sunday without announcing whether it would oust Chairwoman Patricia Dunn for ordering an investigation that may have used illegal means to spy on colleagues and journalists.

Why does Patricia Dunn still have her job? She went out and hired private investigators who appear to have committed a crime. She took the information from them and used it against other directors and journalists. This should be a no brainer.

The argument I've heard from the company, i.e., that upper management didn't know or sanction any law breaking by the investigators it hired, is just disingenous. The moment private phone records started getting faxed into HP headquarters, it would have been utterly clear what was going on. What's more, it's hard to see how you hire private investigators to conduct a leak investigation without expecting them to attempt to retrieve or intercept communications or invade people's privacy. It's like hiring carpenters to build an addition to your house and then exclaiming you had no idea they'd have to cut wood.

So Patricia Dunn should have been gone by Saturday. That she is still at HP can be ascribed to the performance of HP's stock over the past year. When everyone is getting rich off company stock options, nobody in management or the board is going to leap to punish someone for a little lawbreaking. This is corporate America we're talking about, remember.