Wells Fargo to vote no on H-P-Compaq
By Mike Tarsala, CBS.MarketWatch.com
Last Update: 7:51 PM ET March 11, 2002
LOS ANGELES (CBS.MW) - Adding to the rising stack of "no" votes, Wells Fargo & Co. on Monday said it will cast its roughly 4.4 million shares against Hewlett-Packard's planned acquisition of Compaq.
The bank owns a relatively small stake of H-P - about 0.23 percent. But it marks the second institutional investor to come out against the deal in as many trading days.
Wells' decision to vote against the controversial merger comes on the heels of an announcement by the California Public Employees' Retirement System on Friday that it will not back the acquisition.
"Yes, we will be voting no," said Mary Trigg, spokeswoman for Wells Fargo in Los Angeles. She said the bank could not immediately elaborate on the reasons for its decision, or how the decision was made.
Wells also is a subscriber to Institutional Shareholder Services - the influential proxy advisement firm that backed the merger last week. The ISS decision is expected to sway votes in favor of H-P and Compaq's management.
Shares of H-P (HWP: news, chart, profile) rose 39 cents on the Big Board to close at $20.98. Shares of Compaq (CPQ: news, chart, profile) fell 53 cents to $11.27.
Mike Tarsala is a San Francisco-based reporter for CBS.MarketWatch.com. |
