I find the words of the press release issued in response to this, quite
amazing:

  "We are disappointed by the Packard Foundation's preliminary decision.
   Nevertheless, our responsibility to shareowners, customers and employees
   requires that we maintain a pragmatic view of the business and a focus on
   the future. Our firm commitment to this merger stems from our conviction
   that it will deliver the industry leadership and earnings growth our
   shareowners expect and our employees deserve."

If they were really concerned about responsibility to shareowners, customers
and employees, they would have canned the deal already.   From the Compaq
side the customers will face a slow death of their favourite technologies, the
employees face massive redundancies, and the shareholders have watched their
investments get wiped out.   It can't look much better from the HP side of the
fence either, with big redundancies in the PC and handheld divisions a real
possibility, and years of corporate indigestion to follow from swallowing the
Compaq elephant.

When Compaq took over Digital, the grand announcement was that the two would
compine to create a company that could generate $50 billion in revenue.   What
history had shown us is that in mergers like this, the two end up being much
less than the sum of their parts.

I think the Hewlett and Packard foundations have judged this right.  This deal
should go the way of the Dodo.

John

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