Carly Fiorina - was her sex an issue?
The question was bound to come up: If Carly Fiorina were a man, would the outcome of her turbulent tenure as chief executive of Hewlett-Packard have been different?

The New York Times poses the inevitable question in a report (13 Feb.) in which the paper says that most management specialists say the answer is no, contending that the company's misguided Compaq acquisition and sluggish performance would have taken down any chief executive, of either sex.

But, the paper says, the specialists say it is naïve to pretend that Ms. Fiorina's downfall will not have an impact on women's aspirations. Her sex, they say, has sharpened the spotlight on the event, and thus given those who look askance at women in high places more arguments for their point.

Specialists in women's issues say the setback is significant, reports the paper, - "maybe she would have resigned if she were male, too, but you can bet that resignation wouldn't get the attention it's getting if her name were Carl and not Carly," said Sheila W. Wellington, the former president of the women's research organisation Catalyst in the US.

The NYT says Ms. Fiorina was one of only eight women serving as chief executives of Fortune 500 companies, and the harsh glare of publicity aside, many management authorities say Ms. Fiorina's failure at Hewlett stems more from being an outsider flailing away at an entrenched culture than from sex-bias issues.

Fiorina exiting with more than $42 million

Carly Fiorina will receive a severance package from HP worth about US$21.4 million, but stands to gain at least US$21.1 million more.

The New York Times reports (12 Feb.) that the additional amount reflects the estimated value of her pension, stock options and Hewlett stock holdings, which the company did not include in her severance package.

Ms. Fiorina was forced to resign last week after the board concluded that she failed to reverse Hewlett's sagging stock price and accelerate the company's turnaround after the merger with Compaq Computer.

The paper says Fiorina will receive US$14 million in severance pay, and will also receive a US$7.38 million bonus for meeting certain performance goals in 2004 and the first quarter of this year, even though on the board singled out Ms. Fiorina's failure to accelerate the company's strategy.

Ms. Fiorina received restricted grants of about 826,000 shares during her tenure, that along with her other Hewlett holdings, now have a market value of US$18.2 million, the paper adds.

The NYT says that in addition, Ms. Fiorina will receive a pension of at least US$200,000 a year that was not included in the company's severance calculations. The pension could be worth at least US$2 million, compensation specialists said. She will also keep her computer, receive technical support for three months, and have access to a secretary for six months.

In 2004, Ms. Fiorina received a US$1.4 million salary along with a US$1.7 million in bonus and other benefits, according to the NYT.

Apple to split stock

Apple Computer, whose shares have more than tripled in value in the last year, has approved a 2-for-1 stock split.

The New York Times reports that Apple's stock price has been soaring largely because of the enormous success of Apple's iPod portable music player, which now accounts for nearly 35 percent of the company's revenues.

The split will increase Apple's authorised share count to 1.8 billion from 900 million, reports the NYT., adding that Apple has said that each share held on 18 February would get an additional share, and that the stock would start trading on the split-adjusted basis on 28 February.

The paper says the split comes as Apple appears to have successfully become a digital entertainment company. Last month, Apple reported that its profit in the first quarter, which ended on 25 December, more than quadrupled over the year before and that sales increased 74 percent largely from strong holiday sales of iPods.

Verizon still undecided about offer for MCI

In the US. telco Verizon Communications remains undecided about whether to make a takeover bid for MCI, the long-distance provider, though the companies continued to talk about details of a possible merger, according to people close to the discussions.

The New York Times reports (12 Feb.) that those close to the talks said that Verizon's decision was delayed because of the complexities of acquiring a company like MCI, which emerged from bankruptcy protection last April. Also, while MCI has a strong business serving corporate customers with telephone and data services, Verizon executives have said they may try for growth in that segment without acquisitions.

Qwest Communications, which, like Verizon, is a regional Bell operating company, has already made a formal offer to acquire MCI for about US$6.3 billion.

The paper reports that the prospect of a merger of Verizon and MCI has been met with mixed reactions among Wall Street investors and analysts

Toshiba to make chips for Toyota hybrid cars - paper

Toshiba, the world's fifth-largest chip maker, will start supplying Toyota with microchips that control key functions of hybrid cars by the end of the year, a Japanese newspaper said on Sunday, according to The New York Times/Reuters in a 13 February report.

The paper says Toshiba will supply Toyota, the world's second-largest auto maker, with two types of chips -- one for adjusting the rotating speeds of motors and the other for regulating the flow of electricity, according to a report in the Nihon Keizai Shimbun business daily.

This would be the first time Toshiba has won such orders, breaking into a market that has been dominated by Mitsubishi Electric Corp., the newspaper said.

Demand for automotive chips is expected to grow steadily over the medium term, reports the NYT., providing a stable source of revenue for chip makers, whose performance is often affected by wild fluctuations in prices and demand for chips used in PCs and digital products.

Toshiba reportedly plans to spend 10 billion yen (US$95 million) over the next three years to build a production line for hybrid-car-use microchips at an existing plant in western Japan.

The paper also said Sanyo Electric planned to spend over 1 billion yen to double its output capacity for rechargeable batteries used in hybrid cars to two million units a month by the end of the next business year starting in April.

Sony movie unit issuing films for PSP game system

The home video unit of Sony has said it will release four movies in April on a new disc format designed for Sony's PlayStation Portable handheld video game device.

The New York Times/Reuters report (11 February) that Sony Pictures Home Entertainment said it will release ``XXX,'' ``Hellboy,'' ``Resident Evil 2'' and ``One Upon A Time in Mexico'' on 19 April in the Universal Media Disc or UMD format, with additional monthly releases in the future. The unit did not set a price for the movie discs.

The paper says that the small UMD holds 1.8 gigabytes of data, three times the capacity of a CD-ROM. It was designed as a vehicle for games and other media on the PSP.

Sony Computer Entertainment of America will release the PSP in North America on 24 March, with a bundled copy of the movie ``Spider-Man 2.''

Real may or may not mature on Linux

In the coming months, Real Networks plans to float a new version of its media player for the Linux operating system that includes more of the features found in the standard player, reprts The Register (11 Feb.)

The Register says this "experiment" will give Real an idea as to how practical its fully-fledged media services can be on the open source OS.

However, The Register says Linux/Real zealots shouldn't get too excited - all they're going to see with the future version of Real for Linux are new radio stations. Real will separate out the radio service sold as part of its Rhapsody music subscription service and plunk it into the Linux player, according to the The Register.

So far, licensing issues have hampered Real from bringing its standard content services to Linux, says the online news service, adding that the open source world doesn't mesh terribly well with DRM (digital rights management) concerns of content owners. The free software advocates at the company hope the radio service will be the first step toward changing this situation, the report says.