Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) Ordered to Release Letter Launching Hurd Affair

For better or worse, Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ) has been ordered by a judge to release the letter which started the entire Mark Hurd affair which led to his departure from the company.

A judge in the Delaware Chancery Court hearing a shareholder lawsuit ruled that Hurd hadn’t made a strong enough case for why the letter should be kept secret, as he argued in December.

“Whether or not to seal a document allegedly containing confidential information does not turn on whether its disclosure would cause embarrassment,” Judge Donald Parsons Jr. wrote in his opinion.

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit are seeking records related to Hurd’s departure from HP in August, including the letter from lawyers representing Jodie Fisher, a sometime actress who worked as a contractor for HP to its board of directors. The letter contained allegations of sexual harassment, which supposedly occurred during a period running from 2007 to 2009. It also alleged that during one of their visits in 2008, Hurd told Fisher about HP’s then-confidential plan to acquire IT services firm EDS. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is also looking into that possibility.

Hurd had sought to keep the letter from being made public, and argued that since it is his personal property, he should be allowed to join the lawsuit as a party to that end. In the motion, Hurd’s lawyers argued that the letter was sent to “achieve private resolution of a potential dispute” between Hurd and Fisher.

Hewlett-Packard was trading at $41.50, up $0.07, or 0.17 percent, as of 1:07 PM EDT.




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