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By Greg Sandoval, 9 October 2006 09:20

NEWS

An old-boy network at HP contributed to the legal troubles of former HP chairman Patricia Dunn and undermined the leadership of former CEO Carly Fiorina, the women suggested on Sunday.

In separate interviews on the CBS television news programme 60 Minutes, both Dunn and Fiorina said while each was still working for HP, former board directors George Keyworth and Tom Perkins plotted against them.

Fiorina, who was ousted as HP's CEO in 2005, told reporter Lesley Stahl: "Clearly they were aligned in how they thought I should reorganise the business. But these were people that, for all their gifts and all their accomplishments, didn't understand what running an $85bn company is all about."

Stahl said during the programme both women appearing on the same show was a "quirk". Fiorina's memoir, titled Tough Choices, just happened to be hitting store shelves at the same time Dunn was being charged for allegedly masterminding a spying campaign on journalists, HP board members and employees.

Both women were highly critical of the HP former board members at a time when the company is reeling from the spying scandal that has seen Dunn, and several other executives accused of a criminal conspiracy. Dunn resigned from HP's board on 22 September.

Keyworth and Perkins could not be reached for comment late on Sunday.

Dunn was the catalyst of HP's investigation into the source of news leaks at the company, said California attorney general Bill Lockyer, who last week charged Dunn and four others with four felonies, including identity theft.

Despite scores of documents that show Dunn was intimately involved in the operation, she doesn't accept any personal responsibility for criminal wrongdoing and claimed during the TV interview that she is the victim of a "disinformation campaign" directed against her by Perkins.

Perkins, one of the founders of Silicon Valley's most prominent venture capital firm, Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers, was the man who forced HP to go public with the truth about the company's leak hunt and the methods used.

Dunn said Perkins has a vendetta against her for disclosing to the board the source of the leak: Keyworth, a friend of Perkins.

Keyworth acknowledged being the leak after being confronted with telephone records that showed he contacted CNET News.com reporter Dawn Kawamoto shortly before she published a story about an HP board meeting last January. Keyworth resigned from the board in September.

Perkins was outraged over Dunn's disclosure about Keyworth to the full board and resigned. Since then, Perkins has had it in for Dunn, she told 60 Minutes.

Dunn said during the interview: "[Perkins] wanted me off the board. I don't know if he ever thought through the consequences that would go into getting me off the board."

Asked whether she believed Perkins was responsible for her legal troubles, Dunn said: "I don't think I would be standing here today if Tom had handled this different[ly]."

In her new book, Fiorina supports Dunn's claim that Keyworth and Perkins were highly critical of Dunn. "He had been derisive of Pattie Dunn's capabilities ever since I had known him," Fiorina writes of Keyworth.

Fiorina said she suspected Perkins and Dunn of playing a big part in the board's decision to fire her. Fiorina said HP flourished under her leadership and she believes she was fired for "personal" reasons. She lamented the way the company handled her firing - without thanking her - and suggested HP's male-dominated culture was partly to blame.

She said: "I think somehow men understand men's needs for respect differently than they understand it for a woman. I'm disappointed to have to say that but I think it's undeniably true."

Greg Sandoval writes for CNET News.com