Hi Wirt - I am never in disagreement with those who disagree with me over a
stock - after all sooner or later everyone is **usually** right - except for
those who said to buy Enron right up to the fall...

HP? Despite all the turmoil they don't have flaky accounting to hide all the
liabilities .  And Arthur Anderson has engaged in criminal behavior to hide
their flaky accounting  - what is sad to read of their attempts to merge
with another of the "Big 5" and being treated like the pariah that they are.

We can all agree that no matter what our position on the merger or the
Board, nobody has resorted to outright fraud. Just an honest and vigorous
disagreement over the course that HP should take. Everyone on both sides has
simply an honest disagreement.

I agree with your feelings on leadership.  Make wrong decisions and lose
billions in market capitalization in a couple of years. We can all remember
companies from the 80s & 90s  in that spot...

While I voted against the merger if it does go though I would like nothing
better than for Carly to be right....

My personal opinion FWIW  is that if HP wants to rival IBM in their
offerings - in essence a "1 stop solution" then they should consider having
some reliable proprietary systems that  IBM offers (and ACTIVELY promotes)
... I believe that the current path HP is taking is wrong - but hope (and
believe) no matter the outcome of the fight they will eventually find their
way.

My opinion on brokers **in general** mirrors yours - most of them - to make
money - will simply churn your account. I have an 80 year old friend whose
portfolio was ruined by that tactic - A trusting old lady who misplaced her
trust.

This broker that I have - she calls me once per year - if that. Her
philosophy is to buy good stuff and just hold onto it. I don't look at the
stock prices every day - and don't panic if it is down.

I've always tried to buy a stock with a 5-10 year outlook - so the question
we all have to ask is "Where will HP be in 5 years? Short term - the stock
may even go even  lower but long term? I'm willing to bet my money they'll
be fine...

But you could be right....I have been known to be wrong in the market from
time to time....

Bill

> Bill writes:
>
> > I was talking with my broker. who is very conservative - my portfolio is
of
> >  course down like most of yours being heavy in tech stocks like Intel -
> >
> >  But bottom line -
> >
> >  She said at $18/share it is at the bottom no matter how the merger
goes - I
> >  believe in 5-10 years time - which is my window - that will be looked
at as
> >  a very smart move - $18/share...
>
> I don't tend to listen too much to brokers. They have an agenda all their
> own. But what I do pay attention to is the behavior of the corporation and
> its executive staff.
>
> Based on those indicators, if you remember, I publicly suggested selling
your
> Enron stock last July, when its value was still hovering around $60 (it
later
> fell to 24 cents before it was delisted from the exchange). Similarly, in
> January, I suggested selling your Arthur Andersen stock, and just this
month,
> Andersen has been indicted by the Justice Dept, its overseas partners are
> abandoning the company, as are its primary clients. Andersen has been
> desperately trying to sell itself for the last several weeks to one of the
> other four large accounting firms. All have said no other than KPMG, and
the
> talks there do not look promising. Andersen may not survive another 30
days.
>
> Large companies can fail surprisingly quickly. Both Enron and Andersen
were
> about the same size as HP (80-100,000 employees). While I haven't yet
gotten
> to the point of suggesting that it is time to sell your HP stock, based on
> the behavior of Fiorina, the board, and their recent decisions regarding
> commodity products and services, I'm certainly teetering on it. I consider
HP
> to be a company in deeper crisis than most people are giving credit. The
> merger, if it actually occurs, significantly increases the risks of HP
> failing.
>
> Wirt Atmar

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