Did HP Spy on Dell?

By Michael Santo
Executive Editor, RealTechNews

You may recall the HP pretexting scandal from last year. In response to that, last year CEO Mark Hurd said to Congress “There is no excuse for this aberration. It happened, and it will never happen again.” One definition of aberration is “a state or condition markedly different from the norm.” Hmmm.

HP is suing Karl Kamp, a former VP, for stealing trade secrets. He countersued, and in his brief he stated that a) HP pretexted him (no!), and b) HP spied on Dell, finding out amazingly accurate information about their just-starting printer business.

As outlandish as Kamb’s charges seem, however, independent evidence suggests that the wildest of his accusations - that HP sleuths obtained confidential information about Dell and that HP pretexted him - are true. Says Dell spokesman Bob Pearson, referring to the charges that HP spied on his company: “The more we look into it, the more concerned we become.” Source: CNNMoney

We Say: Like I said, it doesn’t sound like, based on the definition, taht last year’s pretexting scandal was really an aberration. Prior to last year’s scandal, I probably wouldn’t have thought HP capable of this sort of stuff (though knowing corporations, that was probably a fantasy ).