Screw the $21.4 Million, I want 3 Months of Tech Support.

NPR had an amusing take on the points in bold during their business report this morning. You can hear it here.

Carly Fiorina to get $21.4m severance pay
By Scott Morrison in San Francisco in the Financial Times
Published: February 13 2005 20:09 | Last updated: February 13 2005 20:09

Carly Fiorina will be paid a $21.4m severance package after being fired as chief executive of Hewlett-Packard last week. She will also be able to keep her computer and receive free tech support for three months.
The controversial Ms Fiorina, considered one of the most powerful women in corporate America until her departure, will get $14m of her severance in cash, equal to 2.5 times her compensation last year, and receive another $7.38m in performance related bonuses.

Ms Fiorina was asked to resign after the computer and printer maker's shares fell 50 per cent and her $19bn acquisition of Compaq Computer in 2002 failed to generate promised profits.

The terms of the severance agreement, which were detailed in a regulatory filing late on Friday, include the vesting of her 6.07m Hewlett-Packard share options. The average exercise price of those options is $35.73 per share, well above HP's closing price of $21.30 on Friday. She has one year to exercise the options.

The company also provided her with a number of other severance related benefits, including $50,000 for financial counselling, legal and outplacement services. She will also receive administrative support for a six-month period, maintenance of home security for a one-year period and an undisclosed cash payment for the balance of her unused vacation time.

She received $1.4m in salary, a $1.57m bonus and options in the fiscal year to October 31 2004, down from her total compensation of $6.64m the year before.

Even after jumping almost 7 per cent on the day of her departure, HP shares have fallen more than 9 per cent in the past year. The group trades at a significant discount to its rivals due to concern about the company's ability to execute its strategy profitably.

Ms Fiorina, who was hired in 1999 to shake up the “gray old lady of Silicon Valley”, dropped a bombshell in late 2001 when she announced her intention to buy Compaq, the struggling PC maker. That touched off a high-profile proxy battle with Walter Hewlett, then board member and son of co-founder William Hewlett, who said the deal would dilute the value of HP's printing business.

She won over investors by a narrow margin and earned the grudging respect of doubters by integrating the two companies ahead of schedule. But the acquisition failed to boost earnings and HP gave up its lead in the PC market to Dell. HP's corporate computing division has also struggled in the wake of the merger.

Her business career began at AT&T, where she rose to be a vice-president by the early 1990s, impressing with her intelligence, professionalism and style. She made her name when AT&T took the decision to spin off its telephone equipment business in 1995, now known as Lucent Technologies.