Monday, August 22, 2011

bad news brings out more stories

I had a chance this weekend to meet a CIO who 'knows' Apotheker and Hurd from days dealing with NCR, SAP, Oracle and HP. The story I found most fascinating concerned an NCR deal with Home Depot on some very customized, proprietary software for in-store customer tracking / inventory correlation. HD had a two-year exclusive, and it took about a year to debug the new system and get it functional, at which point it was instantly valuable to Home Depot. But, through a CEO 'decision' at NCR (guess who), a loophole was found that enabled NCR to sell the same SW to Lowe's, for instant installation. Lowe's was thrilled, Home Depot could sue but not walk away, and NCR shareholders all benefited. HD went later to SAP, and as it was reported to me, found them to be extraordinarily ethical. Hummn...

1 comment:

Ice Piq said...

Every time I hear about Hurd, I'm impressed by what a dirtbag he is. I'm so glad I'm no longer suffering at his hand to line his pockets with more cash.