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The New York Times reports that Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) will pay $14.5 million to settle the lawsuit brought by the state of California alleging that H-P used unlawful channels to investigate the phone activity of its board members.
As is the case in most of these situations, there will be no finding of liability against Hewlett-Packard. And most of the money ($13.5 million) will be used to establish a fund to be used to investigate media piracy (movies and music) and intellectual-property theft.
Is this a big deal? From a principled standpoint, sure. And investors will be happy to see a sign of greater stability on the board since Carly Fiorina's ouster almost two years ago. Monetarily, though, it's a drop in the bucket. As the article reports, H-P reaped almost $92 billion in revenue in FY06, so the magnitude of the settlement amounts to what the company earns in 83 minutes.
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