The Nation's Worst CEOs

"If Hewlett is not profitable in personal computers, and it's not profitable in mainframe computers, and it's not profitable in services, and their printer business is being hollowed out by Dell, then what's left?" asks Bret Rekas, a hedge fund manager in Minneapolis. "I'll answer that: nothing."

Here's a stat for you: In 1995, Hewlett-Packard posted $38 billion in sales and earned $2.5 billon. In 2003, it posted $73 billion in sales and earned the same $2.5 billion. That's not progress. That's running harder to stay in the same place.

Larry Ellison

No major technology company's chief executive has put his shareholders through more pain than Larry Ellison at Oracle (ORCL Quote) in the past four years. Oracle shares are down 72% from the March 2000 high, about twice as much as hardware peer Dell and about half again as much as Microsoft (MSFT Quote). And while most of Ellison's peers have found a way to make shares grow in the past 12 months, Oracle remains in a rut, down 11% since June 2003.

A large part of Oracle's problem is that the company did so well, for so long, at getting its databases into Fortune 500 companies that there is little room for major business growth. With so few major installations left in the world, it will be difficult for Oracle to grow much faster than the global economy.

Ellison's personality is another major part of the problem. His combative approach to business with partners and competitors alike has turned off investors. His quixotic attempt to do a hostile takeover of PeopleSoft (PSFT Quote) has justified their distrust of his instincts.

Mark Anderson, a longtime technology industry observer and hedge fund manager, complains that Ellison "is so predatory -- it's as though he cannot control himself." Anderson says that Ellison would grow shareholder value more appropriately if he were more creative than rapacious. Anderson believes the PeopleSoft deal is a bid to "buy seats" for Oracle database software by purchasing and shutting down a competitor. It will probably fail, and it has been a costly distraction in the meantime.