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

To: Dave B who wrote (4642)	5/1/2002 4:19:33 PM
From: Dave B	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 4722

=DJ Fiorina Has Won Merger Battle, But More Hard Work Awaits By Ross Snel Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Carly Fiorina has spent the last seven months focused outside - on selling the merger of Hewlett-Packard Co. (HWP) and Compaq Computer Corp. (CPQ) to shareholders and fighting the legal and proxy challenges of dissident shareholder Walter Hewlett. Now Hewlett Packard's chief executive must roll up her sleeves and focus inside, as she and Michael Capellas, her counterpart at Compaq, begin the tough work of integrating two technology behemoths. Hewlett-Packard cleared the final hurdle Tuesday in its plans to purchase Compaq, when a Delaware judge dismissed Hewlett's lawsuit. Experts say Fiorina must move quickly to get employees behind the merger even as they lay off thousands of workers, establish a new organizational structure and mesh two very different corporate cultures. Integrating two companies this big would be difficult under any circumstances. Technology mergers have tended to have poor track records, and Compaq's own acquisition of Digital Equipment Corp. several years ago has often been held up as an example of this. But some observers say the uncertainty surrounding Hewlett-Packard's proxy battle over the merger, followed by the wait for a final vote count and Hewlett's lawsuit, will make the corporate marriage all the more difficult. "There's been a long time for these employees to try to cope with figuring out who's going to be the winner, who's going to be in charge, and the uncertainty has caused many people to think about leaving or to get targeted for jobs at direct competitors," said Robert Lamb, a management professor New York University's Stern School Of Business. Lamb, who is a co-author of the book "Capitalize on Merger Chaos," said his study of corporate mergers completed in the past 50 years shows that more than three-quarters of them fail to meet their goals. (MORE) DOW JONES NEWS 05-01-02 03:44 PM