Slashdot Mirror
HP/Compaq Merger Apparently Approved
Spinality writes "Looks like HP's hotly contested merger with Compaq is going ahead. Various news headlines such as this one at Bloomberg.com report that stockholders voted to merge, against the wishes of the Hewlett and Packard families. " There isn't official word yet, but this looks like
it's pretty much a done deal. Anyone else think the business world looks like a
game of Pac Man?
Which is different from an actual tally.
Is she taking a cue from the last Pres. election and getting on the news with a fait accompli in the hopes of discouraging the last remaining mail-in proxy voters? Yes, AG did it backwards and conceded prematurely, but the media had no problem projecting before the polls closed. Lesson learned by Carly?
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
quick question...who else is now big in the world of retail computers...meaning like, you walk into a Best Buy or a Sears, whose computers are you gonna see??? this doesn't matter to me, cause i would personally never buy a computer from a store like that....but i'm just curious, becuase it seems like Compaq and HP were always the majority of the retail desktops out there...who is left to compete? or are they gonna have a virtual monopoly in that field???
"Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true." - Homer Simpson
Have you ever seen a "what's good for Pac Man is good for the game" cheat?
Nah, it's only impossible if the company is public. The stock market is completely screwed up these days. Instead of being a way for people to invest in a company that they think deserves support, it has become little more than a government-regulated lottery.
Now, I have to admit, I'm biased, since I work for one of the little guys, but I wouldn't work for 'em if I didn't feel strongly about it.
Say what you will about the mom and pop shops, but I've seen customer after customer come to us utterly frustrated by their experience with a name-brand pre-built. Seriously, the next computer you get, don't just waddle down to Best Buy or Sears, check out the small shops.
In my opinion, you get better value, better support, and a better warranty from the smaller companies than you do from the big ones.
Anyway, just my 2 bits.
> The official tally may take as long as six
> weeks to be completed
I agree. I also think that Fiorina has nothing to lose by trumpeting a victory prematurely. If after 6 weeks, she's proven wrong, she has a lot more things to worry about than prematurely crowing about victory.
In fact, from what I've heard, there's less than a 2 percent margin right now, which means investors are split on what to do here. That hurts the CEO's credibility in either case, which means the real winners in all of this may be Dell and IBM.
Insert simplistic political, ideological, or personal proselytization here.
I agree with Carly that HP is in need of major repair - the HP way, though laudable, represents a bygone era that simply can't be applied to modern business. That said, combining HP with another model of mediocrity, Compaq, in a hope to eek out savings-through-scale in the cut-throat, low-margin hardware business is simply not going to increase value.
These companies will spend at least two years properly integrating, during which time Dell and IBM will continue to lead, and in fact increase their leads in hardware and services. After the dust has settled on the two year merger process, the new HP will simply make its quarterly numbers by cutting staff and relying on long-term contracts in its traditional businesses....like 90% of the other mergers of the recent past.
I'm inclined to agree...
"But remember, most lynch mobs aren't this nice." (H.Simpson)
-- Joe