收购赔钱，惠普CEO替董事会喊冤

因此，当初董事会进行了足够调查吗?

    略作调研就能从其他渠道发现值得担忧的因素。好的董事会成员会从Glassdoor.com等网站寻找外部信息。从该网站可以看到Autonomy的员工非常不满（收购前后都是如此）。

    一项决策失利后，“依赖管理层”可谓是董事会的一个标准借口，但惠普还运用了一种不那么常见的策略来推卸责任：他们将88亿美元减值中的50亿美元归咎于Autonomy的会计问题。十年前，麦克森（McKesson）董事会在类似的境地下曾成功逃脱法庭问责。约翰•汉默格林现任惠普董事和麦克森CEO，当年就是麦克森的一名高管。

    获得好估值的第一步，首先是要检验数字的可信性。这一点不能随意略过。这意味着不光是依赖经审计财务数据，还要看这些数据的背后，正如笔者在书中所讨论的那样。审计师事务所很少被问责，即便是那些嫌疑很大的事务所，比如这桩交易中的审计师事务所。

现在情况如何？

    或许惠普董事会成员不必在法庭上忍受太多煎熬。在交谈中，笔者发现董事会成员通常并不担心会承担个人责任，因为标准设得太高了，几乎不可能影响到他们。

    但另一件事也让惠普董事会的可信度大打折扣。上个季度，惠特曼减记80亿美元商誉。即便今天，曾经支持董事会收购Autonomy决定的人们仍然对惠普董事会和公司未来存有疑问。

    Sterne Agee and Leach分析师吴肖（音译）去年8月在接受消费者新闻与财经电视频道采访时曾称，Autonomy交易可能长期有益于惠普。上周，他告诉《芝加哥每日先驱报》（Chicago Daily Herald）称，“他甚至都不知道惠特曼的CEO位子还稳不稳，因为在Autonomy交易获批时她也是董事会成员。”

    有些人甚至都在要求清理惠普董事会。意外的是，董事成员无一主动请辞。惠普发言人迈克尔•萨克尔告诉我，董事会对公司正在推进的事情有信心。

    在这一片混乱中，现在可能有一个人在笑。在惠普董事会决定收购Autonomy后不久，惠普董事多米尼克•塞尼奎尔决定“不再参与惠普下一次年度股东大会的董事会选举”（惠普提交的一份文件显示）。这一年的早些时候，惠普刚刚任命塞尼奎尔担任董事。

    本文作者埃莉诺•布洛斯汉姆是董事会咨询公司价值联盟与公司治理联盟（http://thevaluealliance.com）的首席执行官。

    译者：杨智

Did the board probe enough?

    A little research would have highlighted other sources for concern. Good board members look for outside information at sites like Glassdoor.com. That site gives a picture of a very disgruntled Autonomy workforce (pre and post-takeover).

    While reliance on management is a standard defense for a decision gone awry, the tech giant also used a less common deflection strategy: they blamed $5 billion of the $8.8 billion write-down on Autonomy's bookkeeping. The McKesson (MCK) board was able to escape blame in the courts in a similar situation a decade ago. John Hammergren, a current HP board member and CEO of McKesson, was a top exec at that company at the time.

    But the first step to any good valuation is testing the plausibility of the numbers in the first place. And that's not something to skip over lightly. That means more than relying on audited financials but looking behind the numbers, as I discussed in my book. Audit firms, even those withconflicts, as was the case here, are rarely held to account.

What happens now?

    Perhaps HP's board members will not have to suffer much in court. Board members I speak with are generally not concerned with being held personally responsible because the bar is set so high that it is nearly impossible to affect them.

    But the HP board has suffered yet another blow to its credibility. Last quarter, Whitman wrote down $8 billion in goodwill. Even now, those who supported the board's Autonomy purchase are having doubts about the board and HP's future.

    Sterne Agee and Leach analyst Shaw Wu, who went on CNBC last August to say the Autonomy deal might be beneficial to HP in the long term, told the Chicago Daily Herald last week that "he isn't even sure Whitman's job as CEO is safe because of her presence on the board when the Autonomy deal was approved."

    Some are even calling for a purge of HP's board. It's surprising that board members aren't raising their hands to resign. But HP's Thacker told me the board is comfortable with how the company is proceeding.

    Amid all this mess, there's one person who probably is smiling right now. Shortly after HP's board decided to buy Autonomy, Dominique Senequier decided "not stand for re-election at HP's next annual meeting of stockholders," according to an HP filing. HP had appointed Senequier to the board earlier that year.

    Eleanor Bloxham is CEO of The Value Alliance and Corporate Governance Alliance (http://thevaluealliance.com), a board advisory firm.