Graffeo to leave high-def post at Universal

[marzetta7]

Originally Posted by Gremal

I see a lot of folks saying "Graffeo was paid to do a job". That job was to head up the hi def business of Universal home video. Putting all the studio's eggs in the HD DVD basket was not good business, let alone the drug-pusher mentality he adopted in promoting HD DVD and in ignoring the increasingly good news about Blu-ray's inroads and achievements (installed base/market share/disc sales). Graffeo's job as head of the HD DVD promotional group was obviously a blatant conflict of interests. After that he had no chance of making decisions in the best interests of Universal.

One would expect an executive looking at different technologies to be able to pick a winner and get behind it. Graffeo couldn't. He did a lot of harm to Universal's HD group and he did harm to us consumers. I can't say I'm sorry to see him go.

My thoughts exactly. I don't like anyone to lose their job, but Graffeo obviously made many wrong choices concerning HD DVD. Moreover, he did so with the mindset of giving the consumer the less future proof and less advanced format, while attempting to pad manufacturers pockets with HD DVDs smaller production costs. I know he was trying to do what was in his mind, in the best interest of the company, but to short change the consumer, you'll more than likely get screwed. And on top of that, when you go against what the majority of the industry is doing, you get screwed again. All around, he's screwed, and I can't say I feel really sorry for him--it was self inflicted.