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?

Comments

The intensity of the lobbying was AMAZING...

[OmniGeek]

I have a pitiful few shares of HP stock from my time there, and over the past few months, I've received an absolute torrent of competing proxy solicitations from the HP board and Walter Hewlett. Every week, I got at least one new proxy card from each party with a "send this in Right Now" letter. This stuff arrived faster than one could conceivably respond (and even though I'd promptly returned the first green proxy card I got...) Towards the end, the HP board even priority-mailed me a prepaid Fedex envelope with another proxy card, and shortly thereafter a premetered ($3.50) priority-mail envelope. Last, and IMHO rather underhandedly, the board set up a phone-in-and-vote-your-proxy process during the last three or so days, something they would NEVER have let their opposition get away with. UN election monitors would NOT approve...

Also worthy of note is the tone of the cover letters: the Walter Hewlett "anti" camp focused on the bad business sense of the merger, but the Board quickly started a series of personal attacks on Walter Hewlett. This did NOT impress me with their confidence in their case: when you run out of logical arguments, slander your opponent's person.

It ain't over 'till the fat lady sings, and there is NO reliable way to guess who'll still be standing to deliver that final aria. The tons (literally!) of proxy cards sent in to the warring factions' accountants must be sorted and matched by sig and date to weed out proxies revoked by subsequently-sent proxies (and since so MANY cards were sent out, there'll be hundreds if not thousands of revotes); this will certainly take a week. Also consider (shock horror!) the possibility that the electronic or telephonic proxy-submission processes might have been manipulated. Carly's no Ken Lay, and it sure ain't the HP Way, but there's a LOT riding on this (several top management jobs, for example), so the possibility of skulduggery is NOT to be ignored.