Now that Hewlett-Packard's Patricia Dunn said she'll step down as chairwoman but stay on the board, don't get caught saying "What's Dunn is done." Remember these facts when you chat about HP at the water cooler or conference lobby.

  • George Keyworth, the board member caught leaking details to CNET in 2004, also resigned Tuesday morning.
  • Dunn publicly says she didn't authorize the "pretexting" (lying to access phone records) that got her in trouble. In fact, she was "appalled." Official policy is to believe her and accept her passive-voice apology.
  • "Dunn" puns will be funny forever.
  • A reader tells Valleywag:

  • Here's the story from my pressy contacts: Dunn saved skin, as she was basically following orders, she's got massive dirt on others, company-wide thing.

    They are going PR shock, as it seems they spied on Dell and IBM people....afraid of the lawsuits and the market shock. Yah yah. I'm sure of it. That pretexting was a competitive policy, this wades into the bigtime criminal.

  • Okay, so who's the real bad guy? Try Larry Sonsini, the powerful HP outside counsel who told former board member Tom Perkins that pretexting was legal. Forbes publisher Rich Karlgaard says HP should fire him (and Apple should too).

Embattled H.P. Chairwoman to Step Down [NY Times]