Re: HP, quo vadis? Message #2 Posted by David Hayden on 20 Nov 2012, 1:01 p.m., in response to message #1 by bluesun08
The finger pointing is astounding.
Re: HP, quo vadis? Message #3 Posted by Frank Boehm (Germany) on 20 Nov 2012, 1:52 p.m., in response to message #1 by bluesun08
OK, so they were tricked and the books were off by only 5.000.000.000.000 USD? How do you do that, when an army of HP accounting clerks check your books - and fail to notice this tiny missing amount?
I'd just call it a very poor business decision. Would HP have complained, when they instead had *earned* 5 billion USD? Unlikely.
So maybe it's about time to remember what HP *can* do and what they *shouldn't* do.
Re: HP, quo vadis? Message #4 Posted by Ken Shaw on 20 Nov 2012, 6:29 p.m., in response to message #3 by Frank Boehm (Germany)
FYI, $5 billion USD means 5E9, not 5E12. It looks like the BBC has adopted the American usage of that word.
Not so much then, eh?
Edited: 20 Nov 2012, 6:29 p.m.
Re: HP, quo vadis? Message #5 Posted by Walter B on 21 Nov 2012, 5:02 a.m., in response to message #4 by Ken Shaw
Be it 5E9 or 5E12, each member here would be very happy with a tenth of a percent of it - and lots of money would remain for HP to use it for something sensible.
Re: HP, quo vadis? Message #6 Posted by Frank Boehm (Germany) on 21 Nov 2012, 5:52 a.m., in response to message #4 by Ken Shaw
Sorry, I probably have been in a flow of typing zeros ;)
Of course you are correct, we Europeans just get some more zeros for our billions :)
Re: HP, quo vadis? Message #7 Posted by Harald on 21 Nov 2012, 7:32 a.m., in response to message #4 by Ken Shaw
Quote:
It looks like the BBC has adopted the American usage of that word.
Yes, I am a bit confused by that as well. I thought in British English a billion would be 1e12 and in American English it would be 1e9. But recently I have only come across the American version, even in British media.
In German it certainly is 1e12
Re: HP, quo vadis? Message #8 Posted by Jeff O. on 21 Nov 2012, 8:11 a.m., in response to message #7 by Harald
According to wikipedia, which I do not claim to be a definitive source:
Quote:
In 1974, the government of the UK switched to the short scale, a change that is reflected in its mass media and official usage.
Re: HP, quo vadis? Message #9 Posted by Peter A. Gebhardt on 20 Nov 2012, 7:07 p.m., in response to message #1 by bluesun08
We'll surely never know ...
But from a view of a former German Telekom stock-holder it resembles very much the deal once "instrumented" by Ron Lebowitsch which bought Telekom a similar "money sink" - only with some billions more (51 billions US$).
Go back to the main exhibit hall