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

To: hlpinout who wrote (95671)	3/4/2002 6:48:38 PM
From: hlpinout	Respond to of 97611

Monday March 4, 6:42 pm Eastern Time Associated Press Poll Shows HP Workers Against Deal By BRIAN BERGSTEIN AP Business Writer Third HP Poll Finds Equal Worker Distaste for Compaq Deal SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) -- A third independent poll of Hewlett-Packard Co. employees found that nearly two-thirds oppose the plan to buy Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE:CPQ - news), casting more doubt on the company's ability to sell the $22 billion deal. With the poll of workers in Fort Collins, Colo., released Monday, the highly respected Field Research Corp. now has surveyed 940 HP employees in three cities and found almost identical results. In total, 64 percent of the workers polled by Field oppose the deal, while 28 percent support it. Eight percent offered no opinion. Taken altogether, the telephone polls have a margin of error of 3.3 percentage points. The polls were commissioned by merger opponent David W. Packard, the son of one of the company's co-founders, at a cost of $300,000. Packard said he wanted an objective measure of employee sentiment -- since the company says 66 percent of workers it surveyed in January like the deal, yet Packard said he has gotten hundreds of letters decrying it. Because the Field polls only surveyed HP workers in three cities -- Fort Collins; Boise, Idaho; and Corvallis, Ore. -- they should not be considered representative of HP's worldwide work force of 86,000 people, said E. Deborah Jay, Field's president and CEO. "But it definitely calls into question the results of the HP survey," she said. "We keep finding the same result, which suggests there may be more than pockets of opposition." While HP employees hold just a 2 percent stake in the company, merger opponent Walter Hewlett argues their lack of support for the deal forbodes trouble integrating Compaq. HP spokeswoman Judy Radlinsky said the company stands by its January online survey of 420 workers, who were in a variety of business divisions and geographic locations. The methods were verified by International Survey Research LLC. Leo Brajkovich, a global research director for International Survey Research, said the Field polls and the HP survey are not necessarily contradictory. It is possible, he said, to have two-thirds of a massive company support something even if two-thirds of the people at three sites oppose it. "If you're trying to express a global opinion, you need a global sample," Brajkovich said. "Anything less than that, you're speaking a regional opinion or a business unit opinion." The biggest reasons cited by employees who told Field they oppose the deal were that they worried Compaq would not bring enough value to HP and that they lacked confidence in HP management and chief executive Carly Fiorina. Employees who liked the deal said it would make HP stronger or more competitive. Interestingly, 82 percent of the workers surveyed said they were satisfied in their jobs, but 67 percent said HP is a worse place to work than when they started. The latest poll came on the eve of a report on the Compaq deal expected Tuesday from Institutional Shareholder Services, a highly influential proxy advisory firm. HP stockholders are scheduled to vote on the deal March 19. Shares of Palo Alto-based HP gained 42 cents, or 2.1 percent, to $20.55 on the New York Stock Exchange, where shares of Houston-based Compaq rose 24 cents, or 2.3 percent, to $10.65. ------

To: hlpinout who wrote (95671)	3/4/2002 8:35:45 PM
From: Jerome	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 97611

>>>Hewlett-Packard Seeks to `Smear' Hewlett, Lawyer Says <<< Could it be possible that Hewlett is smearing himself????