The Fine Print Forecast Capellas' Departure
from the of-course-he-left dept
Anyone surprised by Michael Capellas’ “sudden” departure from HP clearly didn’t read the ridiculous fine print in his contract. It seems that Capellas gets $14.4 million and is forgiven on a $5 million loan as long as he leaves less than a year after the merger. In other words, they’re paying him millions of dollars to quit. Even worse, as the article points out, during the merger fight Capellas made himself look better by saying he turned down the offer of a $14.4 million “retainer” bonus. Hell, why would he need a retainer bonus to stick around when he got the same amount for not having to work at all? Where can I get a gig like that?
Comments on “The Fine Print Forecast Capellas' Departure”
capellas
I read your article on how rediculous it is to pay capellas $14 million to quit, and I couldn’t agree more. I had been a contractor for compaq over the last 4 years and was always asking myself the same types of questions. For example, why did Capellas trade the Alpha chip division to Intel for “undisclosed consideration”???? WTF is that??? Why did they cancel the hugely successful “inspiration technology” marketing campaign? Why does compaq have no idea what type of computer you have when you call their support center with a serial number?
there seems to be no answer to these questions, and how Capellas parlayed his long string of blunders into millions is testament to his negotiatiing and persuasiveness. too bad that he never used those skills on behalf of compaq, or they might still be around, instead of HPaq.