DailyTech - Carly Surfaces

Submit News

IT Carly Surfaces
Brandon Hill (Blog) - April 11, 2006 1:05 PM

28 comment(s) - last by Shivian.. on Apr 12 at 8:56 PM

Carly Fiorina to take a seat on the board of directors for TSMC

When Carly Fiorina left Hewlett-Packard, there was much rejoicing by employees and analysts alike. Since her departure, HP stock has risen 47% and employee confidence is back in force under the direction of Mark Hurd. In her absence from HP, Fiorina has kept a relatively low profile and has been working on a book that touches on such topics as leadership and women in the workplace.

However, Carly has has recently resurfaced and is again making headlines. She will serve on the board of directors for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC). From EETimes:

TSMC already has three independent board members: former British Telecom CEO Sir Peter Bonfield, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professor Dr. Lester Thurow, and former Acer Group Chairman Stan Shih. Fiorina is expected to become the fourth independent board member and serve on both the audit and compensation committees.

TSMC is currently one of the main foundaries for ATI and NVIDIA. Reuters reports TSMC's stock was down. Thanks go out to Dennis for the lead on this story.

Comments

Threshold

Username
Password
remember me

This article is over a month old, voting and posting comments is disabled

Er...

By Howard on 4/11/2006 2:20:49 PM , Rating: 2

Somebody tell me what good she's done for any company she worked for?

RE: Er...

By Acanthus on 4/11/2006 2:31:47 PM , Rating: 5

time to dump TSMC stock...

Parent

RE: Er...

By AstroCreep on 4/11/2006 2:40:07 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
time to dump TSMC stock...

QFT. ;)

She has the Midas Touch...but if it was like touching things that turn to crap versus gold.

Parent

RE: Er...

By michael2k on 4/11/2006 2:54:10 PM , Rating: 2

The Midas touch was actually a curse, if you remember your mythology correctly.

Parent

RE: Er...

By bl4ck54bb4th on 4/11/2006 5:31:56 PM , Rating: 3

Yeah, but everything turning to crap would still be worse.

Parent

RE: Er...

By Xenoterranos on 4/11/2006 7:21:13 PM , Rating: 2

Would that be a curse or an evil power? Kindof like that comedian that says he wishes he could shot spaghetti out of his fingers at people.

Parent

RE: Er...

By trexpesto on 4/12/2006 12:30:20 PM , Rating: 2

That's the sadiM touch.

Parent

RE: Er...

By bunnyfubbles on 4/12/2006 3:56:29 PM , Rating: 3

I dunno, imagine how much money you could make in the fertilizer business.

Parent

RE: Er...

By HardwareD00d on 4/12/2006 12:02:22 PM , Rating: 2

LMFAO!!

Parent

This should be fun...

By jskirwin on 4/11/2006 2:51:02 PM , Rating: 2

Carly as an independent board member for a Taiwanese firm?

A diva CEO as board member. She should definitely make meetings livelier.

RE: This should be fun...

By hans007 on 4/11/2006 3:23:48 PM , Rating: 2

she basically burned bridges with long time HP employees all over the ranks, forced people to go with her "cut costs at all measures and slash r&d" and go into stupid fields like consumer electronics etc. for a while HP was trying to make plasma TVs .

so a lot of the older managers quit / retired etc, lower people basically stopped caring and their products were not innovative since she would not spend on r&d.

Parent

RE: This should be fun...

By Acanthus on 4/11/2006 3:43:31 PM , Rating: 3

Yeah, lets see how her cost cutting at fabs hits ATI and Nvidia, thats my only real worry about this crazy ho getting her filthy hands on TSMC.

Parent

RE: This should be fun...

By covertbit on 4/11/2006 4:19:07 PM , Rating: 2

Yeah, this can not be good. i am sure ATI and nVidia will both be watching this crazy biotch as she will have control of pretty much their nuts. Its not going to be a pretty looking picture. Can we say, paper launches of the likes never seen before???

Parent

RE: This should be fun...

By Wwhat on 4/11/2006 5:03:24 PM , Rating: 2

if TSMC can survive a CEO from british telecom they must be pretty good at survival though.

Parent

RE: This should be fun...

By Stele on 4/12/2006 6:11:38 AM , Rating: 2

quote:
Fiorina is expected to ... serve on both the audit and compensation committees

quote:
forced people to go with her "cut costs at all measures ..."

= hmm...

As another poster here did, ATi and Nvidia came immediately to mind when I first found the news article :P

To be fair, I'd give her a chance to show what she can do before passing judgment, even if her track record (from pre- to post-HP) does give me a bit of the jitters, considering that she'll be part of the team that steers the No. 1 pure-foundry player in the fab market. At least she's just a board member, not the CEO as she was in HP, and as a fellow member commented, the Taiwanese like to micromanage - hence possibly keeping her out of anything she might wreak havoc in - but only time will tell, I guess. :)

Parent

Pardon my ignorance...

By lchyi on 4/11/2006 2:20:16 PM , Rating: 2

What'd she do at HP that made everything so good when she left?

RE: Pardon my ignorance...

By dilz on 4/11/2006 3:19:12 PM , Rating: 3

I don't think the stock bounce is based on anything she's done, but instead on the notion that senseless harm will no longer be inflicted by her.

She's the epitome of overcompensation for CEOs. "Let's pay this person an @$$load of cash to ruin our company!"

Parent

RE: Pardon my ignorance...

By Tanclearas on 4/11/2006 5:42:21 PM , Rating: 2

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carly_Fiorina

Parent

You are forgetting something...

By Superdoopercooper on 4/12/2006 8:37:08 AM , Rating: 2

She was appointed an independent board member, along with 3 other who were already on board. Along with them, there are probably 4-8 other board members. So, it's a whole group of folks who help the TSMC management make decisions and hold them accountable. So, she has little independent power in that role.

Moreover, the most important thing we're all forgetting: Board of directors == golfing, dinner parties, and flying all over on the company nickle. :-P

RE: You are forgetting something...

By PT2006 on 4/12/2006 10:32:20 AM , Rating: 2

"Moreover, the most important thing we're all forgetting: Board of directors == golfing, dinner parties, and flying all over on the company nickle. :-P "

So TSMC is totally fucked?

Parent

RE: You are forgetting something...

By Shawshank on 4/12/2006 11:36:24 AM , Rating: 2

Working in HP (some 10 years ago) was my first real job. I love the company, its HP Way and the people working there. I was a tech in HP but the engineers their had no airs when talking to mere techs like me and my fellow colleagues.

I quit HP after I manage to get a place in University.

Years later whilst working in another company, I had a lot of chance to interect with HP staff cos we were doing some projects with HP. Word has it from the senior stuff in the company that everything has changed. From the HP way down to the attitude shown between execs and lower ranking workers... This saddens me a lot.

Let her burn in hell. :)

Parent

dumb

By Xorp on 4/11/2006 5:48:39 PM , Rating: 3

quote:
When she first started at HP, she removed the portraits of HP founders, William Hewlett and David Packard, from HP lobbies, and replaced them with her own.

-from the wiki link

Wow, what a lamer.

RE: dumb

By Shivian on 4/12/2006 8:56:50 PM , Rating: 2

Height of conceit?

Parent

hire me!

By juancferrer on 4/11/2006 7:52:16 PM , Rating: 2

so how do I become a rich CEO like her?? seems like it'd be hard for me to do worse than her. "Hey TSMC! pay me 1/10th of what you're gonna pay Carly, and I won't do any worse than she would do!"

RE: hire me!

By S Random on 4/11/2006 11:33:53 PM , Rating: 2

shes a famous person, and its already bought attention to the company. stocks might dive over the next month or two, but if "board member" means "company voice" and nothing else, then stocks in the long run would go up. people prefer to hear the samething by someone more famous, makes them feel better.

Parent

RE: hire me!

By SunAngel on 4/11/06, Rating: 0

I highly doubt she will be able to do much in TSMC

By PandaBear on 4/11/2006 6:26:06 PM , Rating: 2

Other than going around the world trying to sell FAB capacity and be the "spoke person" for the company. Those Taiwanese are hard core and they usually micromanage, and Carly coming from a sales background won't have much say to get in the way.

Carly Fiorina - Epidemy of All Things Bad from the Dot-Com Era

By pcmodem on 4/11/2006 7:37:37 PM , Rating: 2

Fiorina came to HP from Lucent's Professional Services arm, where she had been head and jumped ship just before it crashed.

She was famed for encouraging IDIOTIC behavior such as selling equipment and services to companies, irrespective if they could pay. That way, she could say that SHE made her sales numbers and get her bonuses.

Meanwhile, the rest of Lucent would suffer when the customers went belly-up and could not pay.

COMPLETELY selfish and misguided, and with NO TECHNICAL BACKGROUND . Into empire-building, as witnessed by what she tried to do by taking over Compaq unnecessarily and getting rid of former management at HP in an attempt to consolidate her position, junking the "HP Way."

At least Lou Gerstner knew how to manage and turned IBM around, though he had trouble figuring out how to turn on his laptop.