SEC to Dell: Dude You’re Getting a Continuing Probe

Per Bloomberg,

Dell Inc. shares rose after the computer maker completed a yearlong investigation into accounting errors and admitted executives manipulated financial results to meet quarterly earnings goals.

I see that CFO Don Carty pulled one out of the play-down-a-probe playbook, in stating:

“This is not a happy story for Dell or one that we’re proud of,” Carty said yesterday. “Both the leadership team of the company and the board feel that we have taken the necessary remedial action.”

Mr. Carty is likely a terrific and honest CFO, and maybe the snafu was an honest mistake (I mean this literally, not to be read tongue in cheek), but it bothers me how reminiscent this is of the play-book apparently consulted by the folks featured in a book I enjoyed a couple summers back — “Smartest Guys in the Room“. If you know even the highlights, you know that one didn’t end so well for lots of folks.

Again, Mr. Carty and Dell? probably great people … I’ve bought dozens of their machines and have known them to be a decent company (in my limited consumer capacity), but just once, I want to hear the CFO (the COO or the CEO) stand and deliver, “We cannot give any names due to privacy rights, but I can tell you we fired everyone involved, we’re taking responsibility to the shareholders, and we will make this right.”