慧与科技公司CEO安东尼奥·内里。图片来源：Photographer: Ian Maule/Bloomberg via Getty Images
• 慧与科技（HPE）已与埃利奥特管理公司（Elliott Management）签署了一项为期一年的协议。根据协议内容，该激进投资者将获得公司董事会的一个席位，可能还有第二个席位。慧与科技股价今年已下跌超过5%，这给CEO安东尼奥·内里带来了扭转公司局面的压力。该协议为慧与科技未来的管理层变动或剥离部分业务敞开了大门。
慧与科技已与埃利奥特管理公司达成和解协议。根据协议内容，该激进投资者团体将获得董事会的一个席位（可能还有第二个席位），其任命者还将担任董事会一个新设小组委员会的主席，该委员会将探索公司的战略方案。
值得注意的是，该协议可能导致安东尼奥·内里失去首席执行官职位，或公司部分业务被出售给其他投资者。内里面临的风险在于：自2022年以来，在埃利奥特介入的公司中，已有14位CEO被罢免。
周三慧与科技股价下跌0.32%，年初至今累计下跌5.75%。相比之下，标普500指数同期上涨了6%。
慧与科技在发给《财富》杂志的一份声明中表示：“我们重视所有股东的意见，并认为与埃利奥特的交流是建设性和合作性的。”
在慧与科技发生这些变动之前，埃利奥特于今年4月持有慧与科技价值15亿美元的股份，后与该公司进行了接洽，主要是抱怨该公司股票多年来的不佳表现。
由埃利奥特选出的新董事会成员是罗伯特·卡尔德罗尼，他拥有30年的科技行业从业经验，目前担任科磊公司（KLA Corp.）董事长。
慧与科技董事会主席帕特·鲁索在一份声明中表示：“我们很高兴鲍勃加入董事会。他的见解和经验将与我们现有的董事形成互补，我期待与他密切合作，共同为股东创造更多价值。”
在同一份声明中，埃利奥特合伙人兼高级投资组合经理杰森·根里希表示：“我们与慧与科技董事会进行了积极对话，并看到了巨大的发展价值。我们相信鲍勃加入董事会以及他领导新战略委员会的工作，将有助于慧与科技发现能为股东创造价值的重要运营和战略机遇。”
慧与科技的新闻稿中没有引用内里的言论。
慧与科技在一份声明中表示，新的战略委员会“将评估公司各项业务的战略，并发现创造额外价值的机会”。
值得注意的是，埃利奥特和慧与科技的声明分别提到了“价值创造”和“增加价值”。这很可能暗示埃利奥特的下一步行动将取决于内里能否让HPE股价上涨。他有一年的时间来实现这一目标。如果届时埃利奥特仍不满意，其有权再增派一名董事会成员。
正如《财富》杂志此前报道的那样，埃利奥特和卡尔德罗尼很可能会密切关注慧与科技内部的执行问题。该公司在第一季度未能让投资者满意，当时它被迫披露其自身产品定价出错，并且该公司的人均收入远低于思科（Cisco）或戴尔（Dell）等竞争对手。 （财富中文网）
译者：刘进龙
审校：汪皓
• HPE has signed a one-year agreement with Elliott Management in which the activist investor will receive one and maybe two seats on the company’s board. HPE’s stock has declined more than 5% this year, putting pressure on CEO Antonio Neri to turn the company around. The deal leaves open the door to further management changes at HPE or spinning off parts of the company.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise has reached a settlement with Elliott Management in which the activist investor group will receive one and possibly two seats on the board, and its appointee will also chair a new subcommittee of the board that will explore strategic options for the company.
Notably, the agreement leaves open the door to the possibility of CEO Antonio Neri losing his job, or selling parts of the company to other investors. The danger for Neri: Since 2022, Elliott has ousted 14 CEOs at companies where it got involved.
HPE’s stock was down 0.32% on Wednesday, and has lost 5.75% year-to-date. The S&P 500, by contrast, is up 6% over the same period.
“We value the input of all of our shareholders and we have found the interactions with Elliott to be constructive and collaborative,” HPE said in a statement to Fortune.
The changes came after Elliott took a $1.5 billion stake in HPE in April and then approached the company, largely to complain about the stock’s underperformance over the years.
The new board member, chosen by Elliott, is Robert Calderoni, who has 30 years of experience in the tech sector and is currently chairman at KLA Corp.
Pat Russo, chair of the HPE board, said in a statement, “We are pleased to welcome Bob to our Board. His perspectives and experiences will complement those of our existing directors, and I look forward to collaborating closely with him as we work together to drive increasing value for our shareholders.”
In the same statement, Jason Genrich, partner and senior portfolio manager at Elliott, said, “We appreciate the positive dialogue we have had with HPE’s Board and see substantial value ahead. We believe Bob’s appointment to the Board and his leadership of the new Strategy Committee will help HPE identify meaningful operational and strategic opportunities for shareholder value creation.”
Neri was not quoted in HPE’s press release.
HPE’s new Strategy Committee “will assess the strategies of HPE’s businesses and identify opportunities for additional value creation,” the company said in a statement.
Notably, statements from both Elliott and HPE mentioned “value creation” and “increasing value,” respectively. That is likely a hint that Elliott’s next move will hinge on whether Neri can make HPE stock go up. He has one year to do it—Elliott has the right to add another board member if it is still unhappy by that deadline.
As Fortune previously reported, Elliott and Calderoni are likely to be looking closely at execution issues within HPE. The company failed to impress investors in Q1 when it was forced to disclose it had screwed up the pricing of its own products, and the company generates far less revenue per employee than peers such as Cisco or Dell.