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Technology Stocks : HWP -- Hewlett Packard -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dave B who wrote (4568)	4/24/2002 3:08:02 PM
From: Dave B	Respond to of 4722

WILMINGTON, DE, Apr 24, 2002 (AFX-Asia via COMTEX) -- Hewlett-Packard Inc chief executive Carly Fiorina has rejected accusations that in February and March, she knew HP's public projections for revenues from its proposed merger with Compaq Computer Corp were overblown. She also refused to provide revenues and cost-savings estimates. Fiorina returned to the witness stand today for continuing questioning in a case contesting the company's merger with Compaq. She was questioned closely by lawyer Stephen Neal, who represents HP heir Walter Hewlett, who is bitterly opposed to the merger. Hewlett contends HP oversold the merger to shareholders, and is asking the Delaware court to vacate a shareholder vote approving the deal. "You are accusing a CEO of a publicly traded company of lying," said Fiorina to Neal's probes. On questions about projections, Fiorina said: "You are asking me to do something ... that it is not timely for me to do." "I will not sit here and make a financial forecast for the second half of this year when there is a system of doing so. I have not given the street a target for 2003 and I do not intend to do so." Robert Wayman, HP's chief financial officer, took the stand after Fiorina. He was questioned by Neal about internal company emails from other HP financial officers that were critical of the merger. Stated one email: "We remain well off (the targets)." Another stated: "It is ugly. Both companies are deteriorating in this merger." Wayman said he believes the shortfall was due to a softening economy. Wayman was also questioned about HP's relationship with Deutchse Bank, an institutional investor that voted its 24 mln shares of HP stock for the merger. Hewlett contends HP used undue influence to win those votes. Wayman admitted on the stand that Deutsche would receive a 1 mln usd "success fee" for getting shareholders to vote for the merger. Hewlett lawyer Neal told the court yesterday there was "circumstantial but powerful" evidence that HP used those incentives to sway Deutsche and other large shareholders to ratify the merger. The case is currently scheduled to conclude tomorrow. str/mjb/gc Copyright 2002. AFX News Ltd. All rights reserved.

To: Dave B who wrote (4568)	4/24/2002 3:40:26 PM
From: Kirk ©	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 4722

"Under direct testimony, Wayman said he believed Deutsche Bank's asset management arm was going to vote most of its 24 million H-P shares in favor of the merger. He added that he would not have hired Deutsche Bank investment bankers in February to assist H-P in its proxy battle if he had known otherwise." and "However, Wayman added that he didn't think the investment banking relationship would affect Deutsche Bank's vote in the proxy battle, since he assumed a "Chinese Wall" existed between the investment banking and asset management sides. " then "The finance chief said he was "agitated" and "frustrated" when he learned the weekend before the March 19 shareholder vote that Deutsche Bank was planning to vote most of its shares against the deal. He requested, and received, a teleconference with Deutsche Bank officials the morning of the vote to present the merits of the deal. Wayman, like Fiorina who also participated in the call, said he is not sure which Deutsche Bank officials participated in the call." I worked at HWP for nearly 20 years and I don't recall a teleconfernce where we didn't introduce ourselves. Perhaps things have changed? Kirk

To: Dave B who wrote (4568)	4/25/2002 1:54:09 AM
From: Elroy	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4722

""From early September, I believed they would vote in favor" since the brokerage's research analyst, George Elling, was one of the deal's strongest proponents," This is insane! Even the CFO of HWP doesn't realize that the DB asset managers and the DB equity analysts have completely different jobs? The asset managers don't put any more faith in Elling than they do in any other brokerage house's research analyst. This seems evidence to me that people really don't understand how Wall Street works...... Elroy