Household HSBC Watch

ZDNet Australia, which covers business technology news, reported that HSBC was considering ditching the BlackBerry and switching 200,000 employees to the iPhone. We did not report it because it was not important, other than spending shareholder money for 200,000 of the darned things. However, the original article looked professional, quoting HSBC’s Australia and New Zealand chief information officer, Brenton Hush. And poor Brenton may have a new career as chief information officer in the Bagdad Green Zone, since HSBC headquarters in London said the iPhone idea was rumor. Pure rubbish. “There are no current plans to replace the BlackBerry,” HSBC spokesman Donal McCarthy said Tuesday from the bank’s headquarters in London. “It is the business standard.”

Don’t forget the Paris Hilton standard, the impulse item standard, etc., and so on. So what happened and how did the rumor get started? Or was it a rumor at all? Apple and RIM have both been stable with no wild swings, so it does not look like stock manipulation. Maybe poor old Brenton was set up? And then there is always the Aldinger / HSBC link. Aldinger is on the board of directors at AT&T, the exclusive iPhone carrier in the United States.

I think HSBC is pretty mad at William F. Aldinger right now. After all, how many years does it take to figure out that Aldinger, in selling Household Finance to HSBC, was the financial winner and HSBC was the multi-billion dollar loser? Regarding the HSBC — iPhone — Aldinger — Household International connection, it is like “Can you hear me now?” Sorry Brenton Hush, but you were looking at iPhones while London was looking at William F. Aldinger and AT&T. Who could blame you old sport? Only HSBC Finance knew what iPhones and predatory lending have in common. And of course we knew it too. Perhaps you should have asked. Enjoy Bagdad Mr. H.