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Technology Stocks : Compaq -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MeDroogies who wrote (95498)	2/27/2002 1:43:31 PM
From: Elwood P. Dowd	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 97611

UK computer firm Morse leaps as buyers return By Jean Yoon LONDON, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Shares in Britain's Morse Plc surged 22 percent on Tuesday after the reseller of computer equipment and services flagged renewed customer interest with better-than-expected first half results. Chairman Richard Lapthorne said sale volumes stabilised in the second quarter and he was now cautiously optimistic on the second half. Morse, Europe's largest reseller of Sun Microsystems and Hewlett-Packard hardware, had suffered contract delays last year as economic downturn forced its customers to cut spending on technology. Morse stock, which had lost more than a third of its value in the past three months, was up 22 percent at 155 pence in late morning trade. It had fetched almost nine pounds at the height of the technology boom in early 2000. The result also breathed life into the entire sector, helping shares of Britain's largest IT hardware distributor, Computacenter Plc , to climb nine percent. "Morse's results have come in massively above everyone's expectations. It has lifted the whole sector and stocks which have been under pressure," one dealer said. Shares in Computacenter were trading at 311-1/2 pence or 8.7 percent higher, bouncing back to a week high as the second biggest winner of the FTSE 250 gainers column.

To: MeDroogies who wrote (95498)	2/27/2002 2:11:17 PM
From: Elwood P. Dowd	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 97611

Walter Hewlett Sees Bright H-P Future Without CEO Fiorina WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- While Hewlett-Packard Co . (HWP) Chief Executive Carly Fiorina was touting the company's proposed merger with Compaq Computer (NYSE: CPQ - news) Corp. ( CPQ) on Wednesday, dissident director Walter Hewlett made a regulatory filing in which he detailed his vision of an H-P future without Fiorina. Hewlett extolled the virtues of interim and replacement chief executives in his proxy filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. He cited Procter & Gamble Co . (PG), Honeywell International Inc. (HON), and Apple Computer (NasdaqNM: AAPL - news) Inc. ( AAPL) as companies that prospered when their CEOs departed. Hewlett said that in those three cases, only the chief executive departed, and he suggested that the same could be true for Hewlett-Packard. He cited statements by H-P executives, other than Fiorina, indicating the executives will remain with the company even if the merger falls through. H-P has a "deep bench" of operating managers with an average tenure of 17 years at the company, and history shows that an interim CEO can provide stability, Hewlett argued. In a meeting with analysts Wednesday that began about the same time Hewlett made his filing with the SEC, Fiorina again defended the merger, describing Hewlett's alternative plan as a "press release" and saying that the opposition " can't win on substance." Fiorina has argued that Hewlett lacks a vision for the future of Hewlett- Packard without Compaq. Hewlett made it clear in Wednesday's filing that he doesn't see Fiorina as part of that future. Hewlett said that Proctor & Gamble, which named Alan Lafley chief executive after its failed attempt to acquire Warner-Lambert, has seen its stock price increase 30%, on an annualized basis, since Lafley's appointment in June 2000 . Apple, he said, realized similar annualized gains after the replacement of Gil Amelio with Steve Jobs in 1997, and Honeywell has seen an annualized gain of 4% after the replacement of Michael Bonsignore with Lawrence Bossidy in July 2001 . Hewlett, the son of a late H-P co -founder and the most vocal opponent of the Compaq deal, said that if H-P shareholders vote down the merger the board's next step should be to appoint a chairman and an interim chief executive and to nominate additional directors. Hewlett-Packard shareholders are scheduled to vote on the deal March 19 . -Robert L. Grant; Dow Jones Newswires; 202-393-7851 robert.grant@dowjones.com (This story was originally published by Dow Jones Newswires)