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Technology Stocks : Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Elwood P. Dowd who wrote (520)	5/20/2002 11:12:13 PM
From: PCSS	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4345

PART 1 OF 5 The battle is over - the struggle begins By By Paul Abrahams, Louise Kehoe, Scott Morrison and Elizabeth Wine FT TIMES May 21 2002 02:33 In the late spring of 2001, Larry Ellison, Oracle chairman and chief executive, visited Carly Fiorina, his counterpart at Hewlett-Packard. Mr Ellison wanted HP to enter a technology licensing agreement with rival Compaq Computer, an arrangement that would benefit sales of Oracle database software. The meeting, in a room overlooking one of the gardens at HP's headquarters, ultimately led to the largest and most controversial acquisition in the history of the US computer industry. For when Ms Fiorina took Mr Ellison's advice and approached Michael Capellas, Compaq chairman and chief executive, the discussions took an unexpected turn. By September Ms Fiorina had announced HP's intention to acquire Compaq in a deal then valued at $25bn. The transaction would create a computer industry behemoth, with $56bn of assets, $87bn of revenues and 145,000 employees, big enough to challenge IBM, the industry leader. 'We get a time at bat against IBM every single time,' crowed Ms Fiorina. Oracle's chief appeared bemused by the turn of events. 'Don't blame me,' said Mr Ellison. 'I just suggested they meet. I certainly didn't tell them to go on a date and never imagined they would get engaged.' In spite of the enthusiasm of Ms Fiorina and Mr Capellas, HP's bid for Compaq turned into the most acrimonious deal in the history of Silicon Valley. It triggered a bitter proxy battle between Ms Fiorina and some of the heirs of HP's founders, a struggle for the soul of Silicon Valley's archetypal company. At one point many Wall Street observers predicted the deal - dubbed by critics 'Fiorina's Folly' - would fail and many expected Ms Fiorina would lose her job. Yet this week, seven months on, HP's chairman and chief executive has at last triumphed. The final hurdle appears to have been cleared in a Delaware court, which on Tuesday ruled in favour of Ms Fiorina and HP. Her opponents had accused her of improper conduct during the campaign to win over shareholders, but a judge determined there was insufficient evidence to back up those claims. Preliminary results released one week before the Delaware trial indicated HP shareholders backed the merger by a slim margin - just 51.4 per cent of votes cast were in favour. That result is being challenged by opponents of the deal, but the independent group hired to tabulate the vote has said none of its results had ever been overturned through challenges. HP's victory is all but sealed, pending an appeal. In spite of some near-disastrous false steps, Ms Fiorina has managed one of the most astonishing comebacks in US corporate history.