HP/Compaq Merger Apparently Approved 304
Spinality writes "Looks like HP's hotly contested merger with Compaq is going ahead. Various news headlines such as this one at Bloomberg.com report that stockholders voted to merge, against the wishes of the Hewlett and Packard families. " There isn't official word yet, but this looks like
it's pretty much a done deal. Anyone else think the business world looks like a
game of Pac Man?
Don't count your chickens... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Don't count your chickens... (Score:5, Insightful)
> weeks to be completed
I agree. I also think that Fiorina has nothing to lose by trumpeting a victory prematurely. If after 6 weeks, she's proven wrong, she has a lot more things to worry about than prematurely crowing about victory.
In fact, from what I've heard, there's less than a 2 percent margin right now, which means investors are split on what to do here. That hurts the CEO's credibility in either case, which means the real winners in all of this may be Dell and IBM.
Re:Don't count your chickens... (Score:2)
Which makes Carly's job easier, because then she doesn't have to do 15K layoffs, but only 15K-shipjumpers!
Re:Don't count your chickens... (Score:2, Insightful)
I know when my company merged with another, half the execs got the axe, which makes sense (you suddenly have the double the number of execs needed at a company). The CEO of my company, prior to the merger, got the golden axe with something like $5 million to pocket. But he still got the axe.
Most high up execs, however, don't do it for the money. The money is just a score-card at that point. They do it for the power and control. So getting the axe, even with $5 million to pocket, still sucks to them.
But they live in a different world. If someone offered me $5 mil. to quit, there'd be a sonic boom created with the speed of my exit.
More from the reg (Score:2, Informative)
The register, in their usual style, compared the voting process to a zimbabwean national election....
So how long? (Score:1)
Announcement (Score:1, Funny)
Re:So how long? (Score:1)
Although, if something like this large of a merger were to take place, don't you think M$ would be involved? With all the drones, er... masses, being so reliant on Windont, I have a hard time with thinking that M$ will ever be broken or replaced. Of course, my opinion of the general populous is so low, I'm surprised we don't have outlet covers standard in homes to keep them from electrocuting themselves.
Re:So how long? (Score:2)
Given recent corporate events, I would think they'd just merge with M$.
I'll believe it... (Score:4, Funny)
When I finally see an announcement that it's happened and start seeing some Hewlett PackPaq(tm) boxes on the shelves, then we can start talking.
Merger a good thing (Score:2, Flamebait)
Re:Merger a good thing (Score:2, Insightful)
1) HP now has a wider range of products to sell with the purchase of compaq. However, the transition and management of this huge behemoth will cut into their profits. And lower profit margins means less reinvestment in the company, which will inevitably lead to less innovation.
2) HP predicts another 15,000 layoffs in the already battered tech industry as a result of this merger.
3) It is almost never a good situation to have large companies merge to create an even larger company. Another oligarchy will not be beneficial to the consumer. It will only drive up prices, create less competition, result in less innovation and produce shoddier products. These are the natural results of huge corporations grabbing more and more market place. All I need to say is AOL-Time Warner.
Re:Merger a good thing (Score:3, Insightful)
sPh
Re:Merger a good thing (Score:5, Informative)
I'm not sure I agree with you a hundred percent on your police work there, Lou.
Big mergers are tough to pull off in the best of circumstances. At a very nuts-and-bolts level, there's an awful lot of operations work to be done in integrating a company -- standardizing procedures, eliminating redundant staff and offices, etc. This is far from easy to do, and it is an operation that's been bungled more times than I can count by companies that should have known better, and Fiorina doesn't have any solid operations experience.
Then there's the culture clash. I interned with SGI at what used to be a Cray location back in '98, and the culture war was in full swing. Ultimately, it was the refusal of Cray die-hards to integrate (which resulted largely from the treatment of them as second-class citizens by Mountain View) that really caused SGI to puke Cray back out again.
Furthermore, all of this takes the company's attention from the market, which neither HP nor Compaq can afford to do right now. HP's core imaging products are under assault, their workstation business has taken tremendous hits in the last five years and their overall reputation as a company has gone down the tubes (remember when it was a good thing to have an HP printer? I do). Compaq is also reeling after losing substantial market share to companies like Dell; add to this the fact that Best Buy is coming out with an in-house brand, and they've got trouble.
According to an interview I heard on NPR with Fiorina, she's hoping that HP will emerge as an IBM -- a large tech conglomerate with many profit-making business units. The problem is, they're trying to do it with two units (PCs and imaging) that IBM found unprofitable enough to get (mostly) out of.
Now, add to all this the fact that this is hardly the "best of times" -- Fiorina and the other pro-merger folks have managed to alienate roughly half of their investors, including several board members and two guys with framiliar-sounding last names. There's considerable dissent within HP, too; trust me, I had lunch in a bar a block from HP's Cupertino campus last week (the Duke; I like the chicken sandwitches and Newcastle), and a lot of the conversation I overheard was downright angry.
So I think it's a mistake. There's not a lot of historical prescedence for this sort of merger working well, you're combining two ailing companies and expecting to see a healthy one emerge, and there are going to be too many internal distractions, anyhow.
If I held HP stock, I'd wait for the dust to settle a little and sell it (at this point, even if the merger doesn't go through). If you want to be in PCs, buy Dell. If you want to own shares in IBM, buy IBM.
Re:Merger a good thing (Score:2)
I concur. My company merged with another company about four years ago, and we still have the merger pains. The problem is things are rarely simple when merging two large companies.
Since HP and Compaq are both struggling, the turf wars within the company will be unimaginable for anyone who hasn't been through it. Things are easier when one unit is consistently profitable and growing, while the redundant unit in other company is losing market share and money. But the market situation is rarely that clear cut, and it becomes very difficult to figure out where to eliminate the redundant group and how to convince existing customers to not jump ship to a competitor afterwards.
Re:Merger a good thing (Score:2, Insightful)
Over the past ten years, it is surprising how few of the giant mergers have worked out well for the average shareholders, given that the motivation for these mergers is supposed to be that the combined company is worth more than the two companies individually. On the other hand, in almost all cases, a few senior executives have personally amassed large wealth.
Of course, if I could get a gig running a very large corporation where the basic contract terms were
-
Get paid $1M for running the business,
-
Get paid $10M (golden parachute) if the business is sold to another giant corporation, and
-
Get paid $50M (stock options) if the stock price goes up by $20 per share even for a little while,
I suppose my behavior would be pretty predictable.Sorry, just cynical this AM.
Even so, Carly should go... (Score:2, Insightful)
I've had a lot of problems installing H-P devices. H-P has become a sloppy company, in my opinion.
I don't think Carly Fiorina is better than Lew Platt, the former CEO. It has been a long time since H-P has had a real leader.
Re:Even so, Carly should go... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Even so, Carly should go... (Score:2)
sPh
No, Carly ANNOUNCED approval... (Score:4, Insightful)
Is she taking a cue from the last Pres. election and getting on the news with a fait accompli in the hopes of discouraging the last remaining mail-in proxy voters? Yes, AG did it backwards and conceded prematurely, but the media had no problem projecting before the polls closed. Lesson learned by Carly?
Sad news. (Score:3, Insightful)
Prepare to see the quality of HP products plummet. Prepare to see a slow death of niche imaging products.
Prepare to see layoffs of otherwise securely employed folks. Rah rah, share value.
Their network printers were so nice...
Re:Sad news. (Score:3, Insightful)
Prepare to see the quality of HP products plummet. Prepare to see a slow death of niche imaging products
Prepare to see competitors move in with better products and/or take up the slack. Although unless they are a big competitor I agree that they won't be able to subsidize niche products. I don't know what these niche products are, but perhaps they could be sold to some other company.
Prepare to see layoffs of otherwise securely employed folks. Rah rah, share value.
Prepare to see a flood of early retirements from HP. A significant number of them could have the smarts and/or the money to start their own companies. They are likely to be people who miss "the garage" if Compaq suitizes the company too much. They could create some interesting stuff.
Re:Sad news. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Sad news. (Score:4, Insightful)
Nah, it's only impossible if the company is public. The stock market is completely screwed up these days. Instead of being a way for people to invest in a company that they think deserves support, it has become little more than a government-regulated lottery.
Re:Sad news. (Score:3, Insightful)
Nah, it's only impossible if the company is public.
It's not impossible, just hard.
Red Hat [redhat.com] still manages it (at least right now).
I agree that going public was a mistake, though.
The stock market is completely screwed up these days. Instead of being a way for people to invest in a company that they think deserves support, it has become little more than a government-regulated lottery.
True - a lottery with many spammers (buy this ticket^H^H^H^H^H^Hstock to make money fast!) backing it.
Re:Sad news. (Score:2)
These days? I feel confident that many of the speculators of 1929 would paint you the same picture, except that there was less government regulation.
Re:Sad news. (Score:4, Interesting)
There goes 15 years of my loyalty as an HP customer down the drain in one shot.
sPh
Re:Sad news. (Score:2)
Example: direct technical comparisons across the H-P printer lines have been replaced with a "let us help you select the right e-imaging managment solution" wizard. Which wizard just happens to lead you to select a "solution" (doesn't anyone sell "stuff" anymore?) that is overkill and overpriced for your actual needs.
For the moment, lots of dedicated, knowledgable searching will still dredge up the technical data you need to make an informed decision. That information was presented first only 6 months ago. How long until it disappears entirely?
sPh
Share prices (Score:3, Insightful)
It is not the last (Score:2, Informative)
Voting today? (Score:2, Interesting)
Anyway, here's what HP has on their own site. [hp.com] Looks like most bridges have been burned in this one and if it doesn't actually go through HP's going to look like a pretty sorry mess. Too bad the combatants in this one didn't keep the vitriol out of the press, i.e. one page ads in the SJ Merc, or the 'dillitante' remarks.
IBM must be aware that even if it does go through, it's a house divided, which will take some time to come together, if ever.
Retail Computers.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Retail Computers.... (Score:1)
As far as the racks at BB go, the big players are Compaq, HP, Sony, and newly Alienware. But there's also the lower end machines interspersed amongst the big players (ie. e-machines, BestBuy's personal brand, etc).
There's always going to be choice, just maybe a little less once the merger happens, but then we'll be seeing many more bargain boxes on the shelves.
Re:Retail Computers.... (Score:2)
Re:Retail Computers.... (Score:3, Insightful)
If the HP/Compaq deal goes through, Dell should be number 2 behind them... and I THINK that they are still phone/web order only.
Store brands, like PowerSpec by MicroCenter (and the ilk of BestBuy and CompUSA)... the ultra-cheap (but functional) eMachines crap, the super-pricey (but refined) Sony desktops, the elitist (Bang & Olufsen of the PC world) Apple equipment.
(Obligatory avoidance of "flamebait" moderation by Apple-zealots: I am an Apple owner and fan, but we're not exclusive-- I'm seeing other machines at the moment. Not sure if the relationship is heading towards commitment, but we have plenty of time, right? She does have expensive tastes...)
IBM is also still out there in some places... it was at Radio Shack between the end of Tandy PCs and the retail agreement with Compaq. IBM prefers to sell its PCs to corporations at a loss and then rob the customers blind with on-site service contracts. My company just committed to buying 30,000 desktops from them. Whee!
I say, if it's in your house, build it yourself. If it's for someone who has your phone number (like your mom, brother, uncle, etc.), have them go pick out an HP-in-a-box at WalMart for $699 (price) or an iMac at CompUSA (quality). Get the warranty and support, because man, you don't want them calling you asking you why their computer is performing an illegal operation, and you REALLY don't want to spend the time trying to get them to understand Linux either. Unless they'll pay your salary.
Don't cut the old skool soldiers short. (Score:2, Offtopic)
We got him and grandma a nice little compaq to surf the internet with. Inside of a year not only was he installing peripherals, and software, but adding ram on his own. Sure I get like a call a month, and sure I get all kinds of "interesting web site" clippings from their local paper sent to me. But it's really satisfiying to see...err hear them getting so much enjoyment out of it. I didn't think they'd do a tenth of the stuff they've done with it.
That will certainly teach me to underestimate MY grandparents, perhaps yours have a similar lesson in store for you.
Expensive Tastes (Score:2)
Apple has an odd market niche. There are actually plenty of more expensive PCs, you just don't see them in mainstream stores. To get something as powerful as the $2,999 2x1ghz PowerMac for the audio/video applications that are its primary market niche, you'd have to buy a $3,500-4,500 PC. You just don't see many of those in store shelves, so Apple looks expensive.
If you want a LCD monitor, the iMac is amazingly competitive, especially when the low-end models finally show up.
Of course as long as you have a Mac already, I don't see her as having tastes any more expensive than PCs. All the software prices I've seen are the same on both platforms.
D
Re:Expensive Tastes (Score:3, Interesting)
I bought an original Bondi Blue iMac in the fall of 1998. (I was poor at the time, so I financed the machine through Apple Credit. I paid it off well ahead of the eight year term, though.) It was $1,299, and it was my fourth Mac... I had previously owned an LC, a PowerBook 145, and for four years, a Quadra 840av. (Easily the most stable and "personable" computer I've ever owned, even including the iMac.)
My wife eventually started using the iMac so much that I decedid to get myself a machine. I didn't want to spend another 1300 bucks, so I built a PC and had someone give me a monitor... It was a Celeron 333 running at 500MHz, and it cost me about $700 to build over several months.
By this time, my wife wanted to watch DVDs on her machine... sorry, I said, it can't do that. So I bought a set-top box, and she was happy. Then she saw her friends making mix CDs, and she wanted to do that. OK, we can buy an external USB CD-RW, but it's $300 (year 2000) and it's limited to 4x. No thanks; I put a 16X CD-RW in my PC and it worked fine for $100.
She needed a bigger hard drive (we replaced the 4 GB drive in the iMac with a 36 GB for $200), and added 256 megs of laptop RAM for $120. Thank God for standard components.
Eventually she's compaining that the processor is too slow. So OK, I put a Celeron 800 in my PC, and give it to her. (I'm a little more liquid by this time, thanks to a big promotion.) She bitched about the UI differences for exactly two days, before realizing that Win2000 had actually run Eudora and Netscape for two days without crashing. (This was a problem on the iMac.)
So, I get another PC now. (Mid 2001.) Go down, look at slot-loading iMacs with CD-RW and a decent amount of RAM, $1500. Look at G4s, drool, and see $1700 with no monitor. Go to newegg.com, and build an Athlon 1600+, 512 megs DDR RAM, NIC, SB Audigy sound, GeForce2 GTS video, case, keyboard, mouse, floppy, 40 gig hard drive, 16x CD-RW, 16x DVD-Rom drives. Approximately $700 including shipping. Run down to Walmart and buy a Radius 15" TFT monitor (which I cannt say enough good words about, especially with zero dead pixels) for $375.
For less than $1100, I now have a system that is at LEAST as powerful as a flat-panel iMac, though not as pretty. And it doesn't run OS X, which is a nice OS. But I still haven't had a single bluescreen on either of my home-built Win2k boxen. Now, for $400 more, I could have got a nice flat-panel iMac with the SuperDrive and all the sweet Apple consumer apps on it, but with this system, I can swap out the vidcard and sound card at well, and use DDR DIMMs instead of laptop SDRAM.
For what it's worth, I traded in the old iMac with $500 in cash for a bitchin' 1976 Mercury Cougar XR-7. I still have a couple of my old Macs laying around, but now that I can Q3/Wolfenstein all night on my ugly Windows box, waiting for the GeForce4 Ti 4200 to come out...
Re:Expensive Tastes (Score:2)
Steel Rackmount ATX Case: $89
400 Watt Power Supply: $60
Dual P3-processor motherboard: $120 (or less, mine was a no-name $42.)
Two P3 1GHz Processors: $240 (with heatsinks and 3 year warranty)
Matrox Dual-head 2D video card and Sound Blaster Audigy EX: about $400
Pioneer DVD burner (same as Apple SuperDrive): $550
Add RAM and drives to taste, load OS and editing apps of choice (keeping in mind Apple's Final Cut Pro for Macs will run you $999.00), and you're off... for considerably less than $3499 for the dual G4.
Similar processor performance (less AltiVec optimizations), and much better video and sound hardware. Of course, "high-end video" setups that I have seen usually include about $10,000.00 of specialized equipment such as Aavid... but they don't do Mac anymore, do they?
I'm sorry, but read my parent posts. I have owned many Macs, and yes they are cool and powerful, but if you want flexibility and standard hardware, you can build a PC for far cheaper than a Mac no matter WHAT your intended use is.
Re:Retail Computers.... (Score:2)
Dell will probably never go into the retail market. Their manufacturing scheme is direct sales. In order to streamline thier costs, they do not being assembling their systems until an order is placed. This allows them to keep their inventory extremely low. Whereas, HP and Compaq are inventory type companies. They can't build new products until the old ones are off the store shelves. Dell will probably never be seen in Best Buy.
Re:Retail Computers.... (Score:2)
Dell will probably never go into the retail market. Their manufacturing scheme is direct sales.
Well, unless, after having swallowed most of the corporate desktop market the only way for Dell to achieve growth is by going into the retail stores.
They could still keep their ultralow inventory system, too, if they could just convince the consumers to wait for the box in the mail 2 days after they visit BestBuy...
Why go to Best Buy? Support the little guys! (Score:5, Insightful)
Say what you will about the mom and pop shops, but I've seen customer after customer come to us utterly frustrated by their experience with a name-brand pre-built. Seriously, the next computer you get, don't just waddle down to Best Buy or Sears, check out the small shops.
In my opinion, you get better value, better support, and a better warranty from the smaller companies than you do from the big ones.
Anyway, just my 2 bits.
Re:Why go to Best Buy? Support the little guys! (Score:2)
You white box people should really experiment a bit with design, because every time I've bought a brand-name PC, it's let me down in some way. Most of them use ultra-cheap video cards that are largely incompatible with Linux. And if you give up on Linux and want to go back to the Operating System of Evil, it's a big hassle getting Windows back; you actually have to call the company and beg them for the restore CD.
I've solved that problem recently by switching almost entirely to the Macintosh platform (with most of my remaining mindshare in the SGI camp, and the rest in Linux). But I will need to hold my nose and get a modern Windows machine fairly soon, because I really should be viewing what I design in something vaguely like what others see.
So white box folks, perhaps you could introduce a case design that was a little more sophisticated than a white (or beige) box. Even black would help.
D
Re:Why go to Best Buy? Support the little guys! (Score:2)
If you really want to have a flashy case, you can almost always buy one online, and then take it down to the local shop and have 'em stuff the guts for you. You can even buy one without a P/S, and they'll put one in for you. We do this all the time -- a customer can bring in any parts he wants (with a few notable exceptions) and we'll build him a complete computer around them.
Re:Why go to Best Buy? Support the little guys! (Score:2)
I bought the Lian Li PC-60 usb. very nice case. When I bought it it was $260 (i think), I'v seen them for $140 now.
Re:Why go to Best Buy? Support the little guys! (Score:2)
If you're really concerned about it, do some research. Ask what parts do they use. Get a quote in writing from them, detailing each part specifically. Then, go online and see what people think of the hardware. Check your prices on pricewatch. You know, do the things that consumers are supposed to do.
Re:Retail Computers.... (Score:2)
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/feb200 2/nf2002021_9293.htm [businessweek.com]
Retail computers are and will continue to be an important market, especially for first-time computer buyers or more casual users. I can't imagine that the retail outlets would ever allow one company to get any sort of real hold on this markets -- why deal with a monopoly on a commodity item?
Re:Retail Computers.... (Score:2)
The motherboards are in aisle 3, the RAM is in aisle 4, the video cards are in aisle 8...
Self Built PCs = good
Oh no! Emachines! (Score:2, Funny)
I guess there's always room for America's Choice Computers (available at your local safeway supermarket)
Re:Pretty soon you all are... (Score:2)
"Go out and score an athlon motherboard, Fat Freddy - and don't get burned again this time!"
Why? (Score:3, Interesting)
Unitfy Unix (Score:1)
Re:Unitfy Unix (Score:4, Interesting)
Allow me to weild the clue-stick here. If HP disappears because Ms. Fiorina wants to measure dicks with Mr. Palmisano of IBM, she might as well be giving weekly handjobs to Mr. Torvalds for all the good it will do Linux.
In fact, if HP does get involved with Linux heavily and then goes down to mismanagement, they'll become just more fodder for the MS FUD machine: another Linux comany bites the dust.
It's not done yet! (Score:2)
Remembers me of another election and something about Florida... ;op
Anyway, if I was still working for HP I would be rather pissed off at Fiorina taking some fat cash from the merger while 15000 employees are going to get the boot (and countless more were laid off by her policy). Especially since she is the one who would have got the boot if it wasn't for the merger!
I hope they think about it (Score:2)
Have you taken a look at Compaq hardware lately? Nothing compares to it serverwise, 2U servers with redundant PSU's, redundant fans and even redundant memory boards, HP cant come close.
Re:I hope they think about it (Score:2)
IMO, this will kill the name/identity of Compaq and seriously weaken HP.
laser and servers (Score:1)
They both make crappy desktops that I wouldn't buy anyway. I doubt if a merged company will do any better. Just one less brand of machine for Circuit City and Best Buy to sell.
decisive majority? (Score:3, Insightful)
It's going to take more than just a majority of non-hewlett shares to swing this one. The Hewlett family's shares account for 18% of the company. It's going to take *61%* of the remaining 82% to make a majority of the total shares.
Re:decisive majority? (Score:2)
Yes, but remember that the proxy consultants (SIS I think they're called) have advised the institutional investors to vote for it. That's a large and influential block.
Re:decisive majority? (Score:2)
Well, I don't like the change (Score:1)
Compaq LaserJet doesn't have a ring to it!
HP and Compaq Handhelds (Score:1)
Hold your horses (Score:1)
Not for nothing... (Score:1)
Corporations of the future (Score:2, Interesting)
Proxys for this vote (Score:5, Informative)
Only 8?! (Score:2)
I RECEIVED A TOTAL 49 SEPERATE MAILINGS.
Counting Propaganda letters from both sides, proxy cards, printed booklets, Airborne Express overnight return envelopes (Must be 10 bucks a pop).
I had heard that each mailing cost between $2 - 3 Million. But I'm not bitter since my web team can't get training, equipment, or even software packages to actually accomplish our job.
I love this company, but I fear we are heading right down the proverbial shitter.
*sigh*
Pac Man? No... (Score:5, Insightful)
Have you ever seen a "what's good for Pac Man is good for the game" cheat?
Good for Compaq, maybe bad for HP (Score:2, Interesting)
HP finds its printer division doing very well and its computer devision growing too slowly, so they take the money from one and sink it into Compaq. It could work out well for HP, if and only if, they use the Alpha technology to their advantage. The desktop devision sucks anyway, and should not be considered as HP's salvation.
Tune in next week when . . .
Re:Good for Compaq, maybe bad for HP (Score:2)
sPh
Typical CEO business-school thinking... (Score:4, Interesting)
- They have to "do something" to justify their compensation.
- They don't understand the technology, so they don't have a clue as to how to make use of the innovations their employees generate (Xerox comes to mind immediately, but they're just the most obvious example).
- They do understand high-level finance, and how to fire people to create short-term gains.
So, they do what they understand - move big pieces around on the board, construct complex financial objects that obscure the connection between their actions and company performance, and fire people whose functions are superficially redundant.
Re:Typical CEO business-school thinking... (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm inclined to agree...
Re:Typical CEO business-school thinking... (Score:2, Informative)
I was working for Digital (remember them?) when they were bought by Compaq. I remember all the same justifications being touted back then -- "The combined company will be the #2 computer maker after IBM" and all that.
After a while, the truth of the matter became abundantly clear: the "synergy" was that Digital was hurting bigtime, while Compaq's CEO was facing serious questions as to his effectiveness. Hey presto! Let's merge the two companies! Doing so bought time for those parts of Digital that survived, and also bought time for Eckerd Pfeiffer. Any problems that the combined company faced could be attributed to the turmoil of the merger.
After about three years, though, the merger stopped being a viable excuse. Compaq faced increasing problems with profitablility and market share... kind of like Digital a few years earlier. Along comes H-P, whose CEO is facing serious questions as to her effectiveness... sound familiar?
I bailed out of Compaq shortly after the merger was announced. For my part, having gone through one round of merger turmoil, I was not eager to go through another (though said turmoil would have been a great excuse to slack off and do jack for a couple more years).
Cluster Trouble (Score:2, Interesting)
For a long time HP have been pushing their Wolverine Extensions (much to the dismay of clustering gurus). With the might of Compaq behind them they'll have the impetus to succeed.
Although, on the bright side, it brings Windows into the Beowolf fold.
Guess we'll have to learn that API now!
The intensity of the lobbying was AMAZING... (Score:5, Interesting)
Also worthy of note is the tone of the cover letters: the Walter Hewlett "anti" camp focused on the bad business sense of the merger, but the Board quickly started a series of personal attacks on Walter Hewlett. This did NOT impress me with their confidence in their case: when you run out of logical arguments, slander your opponent's person.
It ain't over 'till the fat lady sings, and there is NO reliable way to guess who'll still be standing to deliver that final aria. The tons (literally!) of proxy cards sent in to the warring factions' accountants must be sorted and matched by sig and date to weed out proxies revoked by subsequently-sent proxies (and since so MANY cards were sent out, there'll be hundreds if not thousands of revotes); this will certainly take a week. Also consider (shock horror!) the possibility that the electronic or telephonic proxy-submission processes might have been manipulated. Carly's no Ken Lay, and it sure ain't the HP Way, but there's a LOT riding on this (several top management jobs, for example), so the possibility of skulduggery is NOT to be ignored.
Re:The intensity of the lobbying was AMAZING... (Score:2, Interesting)
It doesn't seem smart to me that the company should want to get into the low-margin business of commodity PC's. Besides, Compaq and HP have such a poor track record with mergers (i.e. DEC and what they did to the Alpha chip) that I am very skeptical that this one will work.
I think it may be time to get out of HP (if it isn't too late already).
Re:The intensity of the lobbying was AMAZING... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:The intensity of the lobbying was AMAZING... (Score:2)
Of course she said it just wasn't the "HP way" of doing things.
HP: HyPe and High Price (Score:2)
Why merge with another computer company that does the same thing HP does in terms of PC design? HP and Compaq workstations are among the most proprietary PC designs around, making tech support a nightmare (I've handled both and still have shakes when I think of it).
HP has also stiffed me personally with crappy hardware--the OfficeJet multifunction printers have abysmal drivers that causes my computer to hang routinely, and the firmware of the printer is very faulty and wastes my time by giving off false hardware errors.
If HP thinks that a simple merger will help them, they are wrong. HP needs to concentrate on what they do best--and computers aren't it. How about an inexpensive PostScript printer that doesn't require an engineering degree to print one damned page?
I find Carly's determination admirable, but her goals are very suspect. HP is going the wrong way, and its too obvious.
And in other news.. (Score:3, Funny)
No comment was give to queries if the resulting company would be called Hic-UPS.
Re:And in other news.. (Score:2, Funny)
I heard someone posted a corporate logo for the new combined NCR/AT&T as a joke at NCR Headquarters. The logo was a combination of the AT&T Deathstar and the NCR logo (which nobody here probably recognizes). Under it was written the new name for the company:
CRAP - Cash Registers And Phones
Fueling Innovation and Opportunity With Linux (Score:2, Informative)
Hewlett-Packard Company Chairman and CEO Carly Fiorina discussess the current course and what's ahead for Linux in enterprise and consumer applications. Ms. Fiorina highlights innovative solutions that customers are implementing today and talk about the contributions and responsibilities of the Linux and open source communities in increasing customer value for Linux users.
The end of Ms. Fiorina keynote speech is worth repeating here...
demand for linux
The company that brought us the green ogre with the thick Scottish accent and wicked sense of humor wants Linux. Companies that provide the dial tones when we pick up the phone want Linux. And in between the two are thousands and thousands more who are recognizing the power, the flexibility and the smart economics inherent in this platform - and who are attracted to its openness and the inventive spirit that is at its foundation.
We cannot disappoint customers who are clamoring for Linux solutions. Standing still is not, and will not, be our legacy - with Linux, or with any other invention that has the potential to transform this industry, as we certainly believe Linux does.
Which brings me to what I see as the real power of the Linux movement.
The secret to its success is based on a belief in what hundreds of thousands of inventors can do together when you make full use of their talents. And here again, just like all the other great inventions that came before it, like all other great steps forward, the skeptics out there said: It won't work. It won't sell. It can't be done. It won't succeed.
Your collective response: Never underestimate the power of a good idea.
Re:Fueling Innovation and Opportunity With Linux (Score:2)
IBM is the worst of the lot. They have small groups working on linux, but not one sales person will sell you Linux. It's AIX, AIX, AIX.
So don't believe the hype!
It's this or closing shop... (Score:4, Interesting)
It's pure math, really. There is a significant, steady stream of new businesses being created, even if you only count the ones that make it past the infancy stage. Additional ones are being created buy spin-offs/spin-outs/demergers/whateveryoucallits.
In a country with a relatively stable population, this can only mean one of two things: Either the average size of firms must be decreasing, or a number of firms must be disappearing. The strongest of these two factors will of course be the latter. Given that the two ways in which companies can disappear are bankruptcies/liquidations and mergers, you could say that mergers are good. Even if a merger is followed by layoffs etc., a company remains to pay severance packages and face other liabilities. Furthermore, a merger is usually less wasteful than closing a company, as valuable assets such as brand names are more likely to be preserved.
In a dynamic world with quick changes in technologies and customer preferences, continuous restructuring is necessary and desirable. Mergers are important mechanisms of such restructuring, alongside entrepreneurship, bankruptcy, strategic alliances etc.
Carly and the Merger (Score:4, Interesting)
1. a. He is not for the merger
b. Does not have a single friend who is for the merger
c. Does not have a single friend who knows
of another co-worker who is for the merger
2. a. He does not like Carly
b. See 1b
c. See 1c
Too bad to see a company run by engineers now being led by a history major(i think).
For what it's worth.
Re:Carly and the Merger (Score:2, Interesting)
Now, I'm not arguing that people "shouldn't" diversify their porfolio's. However, it is an interesting "catch 22" that employees face.
Of course, the "intelligent employee" will not put himself in this situaiton. As one of my managers explained it to me when I got my first job:
"Your career isn't your job, your career is your skills. Never sacrifice the latter for the former."
The best piece of advice anyone has ever given me. (Well, OK, maybe it's second to my mom telling me to stop playing in traffic.
Economics (Score:3, Interesting)
Mediocrity for Dummies (Score:4, Insightful)
I agree with Carly that HP is in need of major repair - the HP way, though laudable, represents a bygone era that simply can't be applied to modern business. That said, combining HP with another model of mediocrity, Compaq, in a hope to eek out savings-through-scale in the cut-throat, low-margin hardware business is simply not going to increase value.
These companies will spend at least two years properly integrating, during which time Dell and IBM will continue to lead, and in fact increase their leads in hardware and services. After the dust has settled on the two year merger process, the new HP will simply make its quarterly numbers by cutting staff and relying on long-term contracts in its traditional businesses....like 90% of the other mergers of the recent past.
Re:Mediocrity for Dummies (Score:2)
And THAT'S why newer HP printers are cruddy pieces of sh*t. There's no profit, people are running printers for 15 years! Throw in some planned obsolescence, to keep that revenue stream up!
Mergers (Score:2)
I don't understand this weird business romance thing. It's almost impossible to glue together two very different corporations, especially if they are billed as a "merger of equals" where people don't get hurt.
People do.
I think 95% of the mergers that occur are shameful failures.
D
Hewlett and Packard families (Score:2)
Greed Defeats Common Sense (Score:2)
The final results. (Score:5, Funny)
44% Against
11% Buchanan
Damn that butterfly ballot!
Shitbrick (Score:3, Interesting)
I don't get the projected numbers Fiorina has been throwing in everyone's faces. In all honesty she wants Compaq for production lines, some IP, and retail contracts with most notably Radio Shack. Between Radio Shack and WalMart Hewpaq would have a pretty big retail presence. Not everybody has a Best Buy, CompUSA, or Circuit City within an hour drive. They probably however have a RS or WalMart within an hour drive. If people are interested in a PC, retail chains are where they head to. However unlike the 2 + 2 = 5 numbers Fiorina is pulling out, HP and Compaq would not be expanding their markets. They would just consolodate shelf space. This doesn't lead to higher growth.
HP has gone from a company that actually progessed the state of technology to merely a competitor to Dell for presence on the desk. In the short term with decreased competition in retail space from Compaq, HP will do well. In the long run when the retail chains Hewpaq relies on start doing poorly they are going to suffer severly. In the said areas where HP and Compaq are prevelent, for some the only two choices, the market is going to become saturated very quickly due to the lack of demand. Sales of both companies' systems are already low, merging would just mean they would be collectively low even if their overall market penetration was greater than that of IBM. It's also funny how HP has twenty billion to spend on the Compaq merger yet needs to lay off 15,000 people. Next to go from HP will be their printer business at which point Dave Packard and Bill Hewlett will lead an army of zombies and demons out of Hell into Cupertino to make off with Carly and her minions.
HP was screwed before CPQ (Score:2)
I hope this sends a message to the Hewlett and Packard families that they've lost control of the company that bears their name. "The HP Way" (a trademark stolen from one of the cofounders) hasn't existed at Hewlett Packard for years now.
I voted for this merger because I'd much rather see Walter Hewlett resign from the board of directors and the Hewlett and Packard families start pulling their money out of this lost cause. Plus they'll lay off some 5 million more workers some of whom will find new jobs at companies that are doing good in this world. Hopefully HP will be so kind as to call the new company "Compaq".
- A former employee of the now closed HP FPK facility (no I wasn't laid off).
Upgrade? (Score:2)
Anything's an upgrade compared to a Compaq. Maybe that's what Compaq's head honchoes realize: they are upgrading!
Video Game Analogies... (Score:2)
More like a game of Snake...
Generalissimo Francisco Franco Is Still Dead.... (Score:2)
Re:Not going to make me happy.... (Score:2)
I personally don't like HP and I LOVE Compaq. I don't give a damn what anyone else thinks, I LOVE the Proliant server line. I have been doing this pushing 20 years and I'd put a Compaq box up against anything.
To start: Me Too.
I've been buying and running Compaq servers for as long as I've been working on servers, about eight years now. Compaq builds a kick-ass server, but this merger is going to make me walk away from them. About two years ago I started buying desktops and laptops from IBM, the Thinkpad is just killer, but with HP most likely influencing Compaq's server line in a negative fashion I am pretty sure I am going to start buying IBM servers. What this means to me is that I will buy IBM until Big Blue gives me a reason not to.
NPR, surprisingly enough, had a short segment on this last week. They interviewed some sysadmins and asked what we thought. A lot of guys felt like I do, either for HP or for Compaq, and as a result of the unknowns of the merger were going to pull business, others liked one's workstations and the other's servers and hoped the merger would keep what they perceived as the best of both worlds.
No one knows what is going to come out of this, but what I do know is that for the forseeable future IBM has a new server customer or few.
Re:Not going to make me happy.... (Score:2)
Anyway we'll be watching what happens to the Proliant line and begin evaluating the IBM offerings.